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Saturday, April 24, 2010

Berkshire Hathaway investment in Goldman Sachs 'part of Galleon probe'

Berkshire Hathaway's $5 billion investment in Goldman Sachs is being probed as part of the Galleon Group insider trading ring investigation, it has been reported.

Galleon Group founder Raj Rajaratnam was arrested last year in allegations that claim he was the center of a massive insider trading scam.

Last month, a court filing related to the case stated that Mr Rajaratnam and his alleged co-conspirators had been trading on information involving Goldman Sachs.

An inside source has told the Wall Street Journal government investigators are now looking into claims that Goldman Sachs director Rajat Gupta passed on information to Mr Rajaratnam about Berkshire Hathaway's investment before the deal was made public.

Mr Gupta has not been charged in relation to the case and his lawyer Gary Naftalis said: "Rajat has neither violated any law nor done anything else improper.

"He has always conducted himself with integrity in his business, philanthropic and personal life."

The allegations mark a bad month for Goldman Sachs, which has also been accused of fraud by the Securities and Exchange Commission in a separate case.

It is claimed the bank sold an investment package to investors that was designed to fail.

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