Ex-IBM exec says he's guilty in inside trading case

Robert Moffat of Ridgefield, Conn., announced his plea Monday in federal court in Manhattan. It was not immediately accepted by the magistrate judge.

Moffat, 53, says he is pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit securities fraud and securities fraud. The charges carry a potential penalty of 25 years in prison.

Moffat was once considered a candidate for chief executive officer at IBM (NYSE: IBM). He has been free on $2 million bail.

The executive has numerous Triangle connections. Once a top executive in IBM’s personal computer division that was largely based in the Triangle, he also was a member of the advisory board at Lenovo. Lenovo bought IBM's PC division in 2005.

Moffat was considered the highest level executive arrested in connection with a scheme that centered on the securities trades of a portfolio manager for Galleon Group.

His lawyer, Kerry Andrew Lawrence, confirmed last week that Moffat had waived indictment. The lawyer spoke after prosecutors filed a one-page note in the case saying they intend to file a document outlining charges against Moffat once he formally waives indictment. That is a process that others in the case have followed before pleading guilty. No date was set, however. Lawrence declined to comment further.

“The document that was filed simply says that the government is planning on filing information upon Mr. Moffat’s waiver of indictment,” Lawrence told Bloomberg news. However, he declined to say if Moffat would plead guilty.

Moffat is the 11th person to plead guilty in a case that has resulted in charges against 21 defendants. Authorities say profits from illegal trades topped $50 million.

Moffat was implicted in a scheme that centered around the securities trades of Raj Rajaratnam, a portfolio manager for Galleon Group, a hedge fund that once had up to $7 billion in assets under management.

Rajaratnam, who has pleaded not guilty to securities fraud charges, was ranked No. 559 by Forbes magazine last year among the world's wealthiest people with a $1.3 billion net worth.

The case also is unique because prosecutors made extensive use of wiretaps for the first time in an insider trading case to capture hundreds of phone conversations between the defendants.

The wiretaps have already become a focus of lawyers. On Tuesday, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments before delaying a decision on whether defense attorneys must release the wiretap evidence they received from prosecutors to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

"The United States Attorney's Office will file an information upon the defendant's waiver of indictment," the filing in Manhattan federal court by prosecutors said, according to Reuters.

An information is an alternative charging document to an indictment and usually indicates the defendant has agreed to plead guilty, Reuter noted.

In January, Lawrence told Bloomberg news: “We’re not engaging in plea discussions and are hopeful to avoid an indictment.”

A January court filing regarding Moffat in the case noted:

“We are in the process of finalizing a plea agreement with defendant [Mark] Kurland [co-founder of New Castle Funds] and are engaged in ongoing discussions with counsel for defendant Moffat.”

At New Castle, Kurland supervised Danielle Chiesi, who is alleged to have gotten information from Moffit and relayed it to billionaire Raj Rajaratnam as well as Kurland.

Chiesi’s attorneys told Bloomberg that the Kurland talks had “no impact on our case. We are continuing to vigorously maintain our innocence, and plan to fight this all the way through to the end.”

The filing also included some interesting background about the Moffat case. He was required to:

Some of the allegations about Moffat center on IBM’s discussions about a possible acquisition of Sun Microsystems. IBM later decided not to buy Sun, which was later bought by Oracle.

“The SEC … alleges that Moffat provided inside information to [defendant Danielle} Chiesi about Sun Microsystems. Moffat obtained the information when IBM was contemplating acquiring Sun,” the SEC said in a statement. “Chiesi then allegedly traded on the basis of this information on behalf of New Castle, making approximately $1 million in profits.”

IBM, which employs some 10,000 people in RTP, declined comment about the case. Moffat left IBM shortly after the case erupted.

Moffat’s title was senior vice president and group executive at IBM’s Systems and Technology Group, making him head of IBM’s hardware operations. Moffat took over the $20 billion group last year. He worked at IBM for 31 years.

According to ChannelWeb, which follows IBM closely, Moffat was a confidant of IBM Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Sam Palisamo and has been considered a possible successor to Palmisano. ChannelWeb labeled Moffat as the “no-nonsense hardware boss” at IBM.