Ex-Intel man Rajiv Goel sentence in wk

Intel Corp's former India-born managing director Rajiv Goel, who had pleaded guilty to passing confidential information about the firm to now-jailed hedge fund founder Raj Rajaratnam, will be sentenced next week on insider trading charges and could face 25 years in prison.

Goel, 54, was arrested with Rajaratnam in October 2009 and had pleaded guilty in 2010 to conspiracy and securities fraud.

He is scheduled to be sentenced on September 21 before Judge Barbara Jones in Manhattan federal court.

The Wharton Business School graduate was among the scores of Wall Street executives nailed by US Attorney in Manhattan Preet Bharara's team in the widespread crackdown on insider trading.

Other prominent India-born executives were also charged by Bharara in the large scale insider trading ring that was managed by Rajaratnam.

Among them, Goldman Sach's former director Rajat Gupta is the most high profile Indian-American to be convicted on insider trading charges and will be sentenced on October 17.

Goel is one of three main government witnesses who had agreed to cooperate with the government and had testified against the Sri Lankan billionaire in his trial last year.

The other government witness India-born former McKinsey executive Anil Kumar was spared jail time and was sentenced in July to only two years' probation for his cooperation in Rajaratnam's and his mentor at Mckinsey Rajat Gupta's trial.

Federal prosecutors have recommended to the Manhattan Court that Goel be shown leniency at his sentencing since he had provided "substantial assistance" as a key government witness in Rajaratnam's insider trading trial that helped convict the hedge fund founder.

Earlier this week, Bharara said in a letter to Jones that Goel was a "highly significant witness" who helped the government secure a conviction in one of the most significant and high-profile insider trading trials in history.

Mumbai-born Goel had met Rajaratnam in 1983 at the Wharton Business School.

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