Former hedge fund manager avoids prison, gets credit for helping prosecutors in probe

On Tuesday, a federal judge spared a former hedge fund manager Samir Barai who admitted to trading on non-public information regarding various technology companies. The judge credited the help of Samir Barai when he became a cooperating witness in an insider-trading scheme.

According to Newsmax, Samir Barai was sentenced in Manhattan to two years of supervised release and order to forfeit $216,603 by US District Judge Deborah Batts. The founder of the Barai Capital Management expressed his regret for the conduct that caused him to 'lose his good name and reputation'. Barai, 46, is one of the many individuals charged by federal prosecutors under US Attorney Preet Bharara during an insider trading crackdown. 

Before he was sentenced in Manhattan, Barai tearfully asked Justice Batts to spare him from prison. Barai said he'd learned his lesson during the five years he spent assisting federal investigators.

"I paid a high price for these crimes," he said.

The former manager, who is a Harvard Business School graduate, helped SAC Capital Advisors LP fund managers Donald Longueuil and Noah Freeman in a four-year scheme to acquire information from technology company workers who were moonlighting as consultants.

Bloomberg reported that Barai made $3.9 million by trading  inside information obtained from several workers. In 2011, he pleaded guilty to securities fraud and other charges over a scheme that involves Donald Longueuil and Noah Freeman. Prosecutors claimed that the men were close friends who sought to have an edge by taking advantage of the inside information from companies like Marvell Technology Group LTD and Nvidia Corp.

Winifred Jiau, a consultant to the Primary Global Research, was among the individual who helped Barai and Freeman obtain information. Jiau, who was also a contract worker for Nvidia, had formed an investment club with a finance employee at Marvell and Nvidia.  Reuters reported that the group allowed Jiau to access details about the companies' financial results in 2007 and 2008.

A lawyer of Barai told the Judge that his client served as an unpaid consultant for the Federal Bureau of Investigation and made undercover recordings of a former partner back in 2013.

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former hedge fund manager, prison, us trading, Nvidia Corp, marvell technology, samir barai, Primary Global Research, barai capital management

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