* Pleas entered a year ago, announced Friday night
* Main Galleon insider trading case to be tried January
By Grant McCool
NEW YORK, Nov 12 (Reuters) - U.S. prosecutors who charged Galleon hedge fund founder Raj Rajaratnam and a score of others with illegal insider trading in 2009, on Friday night publicly released details of two additional defendants in the case who pleaded guilty a year ago.
The identities of former hedge fund manager Thomas Hardin and former trader Franz Tudor, had not previously been disclosed by prosecutors, who described the Galleon case as the biggest probe of insider trading at hedge funds in the United States.
Hardin's name had emerged earlier this year in the court record of one of the two insider trading networks identified by the government as having exchanged confidential information and traded in publicly-listed stocks.
Hardin's lawyer, Larry Kranz, declined to comment. A lawyer for Tudor could not immediately be reached.
Simultaneously on Friday night, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced civil charges against Tudor and Hardin and Hardin's Lanexa Management LLC. In all, 23 former fund managers, traders and executives have been criminally or civilly charged in the broader Galleon case.
Tudor pleaded guilty on Oct. 29 last year and Hardin on Dec. 21 last year, according to documents filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan. Hardin traded in shares of Hilton Hotels, Google and Kronos based on nonpublic information that he received from another former trader and key figure in the case, Roomy Khan, according to court record. She has also pleaded guilty.
Rajaratnam, 53, and principal co-defendant Danielle Chiesi, have pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy and securities fraud. They are fighting in court to persuade a judge to suppress evidence gathered by the FBI, which secretly recorded his telephone conversations. A ruling is expected anytime with the trial scheduled for Jan. 17.
One of the hallmarks of the Galleon case, which came to light with arrests in October and November last year, was the government's first extensive use of wiretaps in a white-collar crime probe, a method traditionally reserved to investigate violent, organized crime groups.
The government estimates that Rajaratnam and Chiesi made about $53 million in illegal profits.
In all, 14 defendants have pleaded guilty to criminal charges, eight have pleaded not guilty and one is at large.
In court documents unsealed on Friday night, Hardin of Lanexa Management LLC hedge fund in New York, pleaded guilty on Dec. 21, 2009 to criminal charges of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and securities fraud. The SEC said he made $950,000 in illegal profits.
Hardin is one of 10 people who have cooperated with the government investigation.
Tudor, who also cooperated, was a trader with the Schottenfeld Group. He pleaded guilty on Oct. 29 last year to the same charges, according to the newly-unsealed court documents. The SEC said he made $715,000 in illegal profits.
The cases are USA v Raj Rajaratnam and Danielle Chiesi, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, No. 09-01184 and USA v Zvi Goffer et al No. 10-056; SEC v Galleon Management 09-08811 and SEC V Cutillo No. 09-09208. (Reporting by Grant McCool; editing by Carol Bishopric)