Close Close
Sign In
Newsletters
Popular Financial Topics Discover relevant content from across the suite of ALM legal publications From the Industry More content from ThinkAdvisor and select sponsors Investment Advisor Issue Gallery Read digital editions of Investment Advisor Magazine Tax Facts Get clear, current, and reliable answers to pressing tax questions
Luminaries Awards
Podcast Center Video Center Webcasts Resource Center Events
About ThinkAdvisor Contact Us Advertise With Us Asset & Logo Licensing Sitemap Terms of Service Privacy Policy Copyright © 2024 ALM Global, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
ThinkAdvisor

Portfolio > Alternative Investments

New Castle Hedge Fund's Kurland Sentenced in Galleon Group Case

By Joyce Hanson

X
Your article was successfully shared with the contacts you provided.

Mark Kurland, a co-founder of the $1 billion New Castle hedge fund, was sentenced Friday, May 21, to two years and three months in jail and ordered to forfeit the $900,000 he earned in illegal insider trades.

The 61-year-old executive from Mount Kisco, New York, was the first to be sentenced in the Galleon Group case, an insider trading scheme that resulted in the arrests of top executives including New York billionaire Raj Rajaratnam, Galleon’s founder.

In federal court in Manhattan, U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero said the defendant had a choice to be a leader of the financial industry, but instead “he became a joiner, surrendering to a spree of mob mentality” that nearly brought down this country’s financial system.

Kurland pleaded guilty to charges of committing securities fraud, but he is not cooperating with prosecutors, unlike most others who have pleaded guilty in the case involving 21 people charged since October 2009. Those who are cooperating will face sentencing later.

Rajaratnam, 52, has pleaded not guilty for his alleged role as kingpin of the insider-trading ring that generated millions of dollars in illegal trades. Rajaratnam, ranked No. 559 on Forbes’ 2009 list of billionaires, cut the insider deals with his network of Wall Street executives, federal prosecutors say.

New Castle Partners operated as the equity hedge fund group of Bear Stearns Asset Management Inc. until J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. acquired Bear in March 2008. In January 2009, New Castle Partners ended its affiliation with JPMorgan and formed a new hedge fund, New Castle Partners LP., in January 2009, according to published reports.

NOT FOR REPRINT

© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.