Guilty Plea

NEW YORK, January 7, 2010 (AFP) - A former senior partner in the McKinsey & Co consulting firm pleaded guilty Thursday in New York to taking money for providing tips in the alleged Galleon hedge fund insider trading ring. Anil Kumar pleaded guilty in federal court to conspiracy and securities fraud and said he had been paid large sums of money for the information on McKinsey clients by Galleon founder Raj Rajaratnam.

"From 2003 through 2009, Kumar and Rajaratnam, who met in the 1980s while they were both at the same business school, conspired to engage in insider trading," a statement from the prosecutor's office said.

Kumar received "amounts ranging up to one million dollars in certain years," the statement said. "Specifically, in 2003, Rajaratnam approached Kumar and offered to pay him up to 500,000 dollars per year for information."

"After Kumar provided this information to Rajaratnam, Rajaratnam directed trading for the Galleon Technology Funds on the basis of it, and made at least 19.7 million dollars in illegal profits," the prosecutor's office said.

US Attorney Preet Bharara said Kumar was cooperating with the government's probe into Galleon.

"With his guilty plea today, Anil Kumar acknowle