EX-AMD CEO Ruiz Linked to Galleon Case

LOS ANGELES -- Chipmaker AMD (AMD Quote) said it is "thoroughly reviewing" published reports fingering former chairman and CEO Hector Ruiz as the AMD executive who gave confidential company information to a defendant in the Galleon Group insider trading case.

"We are not aware of any allegation of criminal misconduct on the part of any current or former AMD employees, nor have any current or former AMD employees been charged with a crime," AMD said in a statement late Tuesday. A spokesman for the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company declined to comment further.

Citing an unnamed person familiar with the matter, the Wall Street Journal reported on its Web site Tuesday that Ruiz is the Advanced Micro Devices executive described in the Manhattan U.S. Attorney's Office complaint as passing inside information to defendant Danielle Chiesi.

Chiesi was among six hedge fund managers and corporate executives arrested earlier this month in a hedge fund insider trading case that authorities say generated more than $25 million in illegal profits. Chiesi worked for New Castle, the equity hedge fund group of Bear Stearns Asset Management that had assets worth about $1 billion under management, according to court papers.

Raj Rajaratnam, the Galleon Group portfolio manager at the center of the case, last week said Galleon would wind down its funds after publicity surrounding the case led some investors to pull out money.

Before he left AMD's CEO job last year, Ruiz was only the second person to run the company other than founder and longtime CEO Jerry Sanders and was one of the few Hispanic CEOs of a major U.S. corporation. Ruiz, now 63, left amid mounting investor frustration over AMD's finances. He was instrumental in orchestrating a fix: the spinoff of AMD's manufacturing operations into a company called GlobalFoundries, of which he is now chairman.