It's another black mark against Primary Global Research. Earlier this month, one of its former expert consultants, Winifred Jiau, was found guilty on insider trading charges. Now, Mark Langoria, another Primary Global expert consultant has pleaded guilty to passing along confidential information about the company he worked for, Advanced Micro Devices. He was a supply chain manager at Advanced Micro.
Langoria admits he passed the information to clients of Primary Global, making him one of the most popular Primary Global consultants. Some of his clients were hedge funds. Two in particular are of note: Spherix Capital, whose founders were judged guilty in the Galleon Group case, and Barai Capital Management, where an analyst and a founder have pleaded guilty. So far, prosecutors have racked up nine guilty pleas in the expert network case.
Longoria already telegraphed that he was going to plead guilty. He told the judge after his arrest in December that he was not preparing to fight the case. In March, Langoria's lawyer admitted that they were in plea negotiations.
Another trial of a Primary Global executive, James Fleishman, is scheduled to occur later in 2011. Walter Shimoon is yet another accused tipster – his plea deal is expected by Wednesday unless it falls through entirely.
© 2011 Hedge Fund Writer LLC
