INSIDER TRADING

A California woman has been arrested on charges of leaking secrets about technology companies to hedge funds, as federal prosecutors expand their probe into insider trading.

Some of the murky details surrounding Mark Hurd's abrupt exit from Hewlett-Packard Co last summer may be about to clear up, with federal regulators on the scent.

Four people, including an executive from an expert networking firm, have been arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents in an operation seen as part of a widening probe into insider trading.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating claims that former Hewlett Packard CEO Mark Hurd shared inside information about the company's then-pending acquisition of EDS Corp, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.

A key cooperating witness in the U.S. government's probe of insider trading was a technology analyst named Karl Motey who made dozens of calls to gather evidence for the government, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, citing a person familiar with the case.

Four men were arrested for taking part in an insider trading scheme in which details of Apple's iPhone and iPad were leaked to hedge fund managers.

U.S. authorities could announce a series of arrests in the next phase of a long-running insider trading investigation as early as next week, CNBC said in a report on Friday.

The Securities and Exchange Commission charged a Maryland business consultant and his uncle with insider trading, saying they used codes from the 1987 movie Wall Street to try to hide their scheme.

Stock index futures were mixed on Wednesday, pressured by rising bond yields and a stronger dollar.

Federal authorities have expanded an investigation into insider trading on Wall Street, bringing to more than one dozen the number of subpoenas sent to hedge funds and other investment firms over the past two weeks, people familiar with the inquiry said.

John Kinnucan, the owner of an independent research firm that has been implicated in a major insider trading investigation, said he received a subpoena on Friday morning to provide federal prosecutors with documents dating back to January 2008.

Trading activity around a number of healthcare deals is being examined by the U.S. authorities as part of investigations into suspected insider trading by certain hedge fund players, the Wall Street Journal said, citing people familiar with the matter.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) stormed into offices of three large hedge funds in New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts and seized documents in a string of raids that is being billed as a crackdown on insider trading by hedge funds, mutual funds and investment bankers.

Federal prosecutors in New York, the FBI, and the SEC are capping a three-year colossal insider trader investigation involving expert networks.

A former hedge fund manager has been accused by a U.S. regulator of illegal insider trading in MedImmune Inc securities prior to the acquisition of the pharmaceutical company by Britain's AstraZeneca Plc.

U.S. prosecutors on Monday recommended a six-month prison term for Robert Moffat, a former IBM executive who pleaded guilty in the Galleon hedge fund insider trading probe.

U.S. securities regulators are investigating whether people may have illegally profited from trading on nonpublic information at BP Plc in the weeks and months following the disastrous Gulf of Mexico oil spill, two sources familiar with the investigation said on Monday.

The Securities and Exchange Commission charged the billionaire Samuel Wyly and his brother Charles with fraud for reaping more than $550 million of illicit gains by trading stock in four companies while they were serving as directors.

Galleon Group hedge fund founder Raj Rajaratnam is making an all-out legal assault to get the first wiretaps used in a widespread probe of insider trading on Wall Street thrown out, but legal experts doubt the defendant will succeed.

Former IBM Corp executive Robert Moffat, who admitted to charges of insider trading in the Galleon hedge fund probe, told Fortune magazine that his affair with co-defendant Danielle Chiesi was more about business than sex.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday agreed to pay $755,000 to a former staff attorney who was fired while he was probing possible insider trading at a prominent hedge fund.