Rajiv Goel was a midlevel executive at Intel. He was a managing director in Intel's treasury department and a director of strategic investments at Intel Capital.

In 2009 he was arrested for insider trading with friend and hedge fund founder Raj Rajaratnam

Raj Rajaratnam

Raj Rajaratnam is an American former hedge fund manager and founder of the Galleon Group, a New York-based hedge fund management firm. On October 16, 2009, he was arrested by the FBI on allegations of insider trading, which also caused the Galleon Group to close. He stood trial in U.S. v...

 in a sprawling U.S. federal investigation centered around the Galleon Group

Galleon Group

Galleon Group was one of the largest hedge fund management firms in the world, managing over $7 billion, before closing in October 2009. The firm was at the center of a 2009 insider trading scandal that resulted in investors pulling capital from the firm rapidly...

. He pleaded guilty to securities fraud and conspiracy in February 2010.

Goel met Rajaratnam while they were both students at Wharton

Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania

The Wharton School is the business school of the University of Pennsylvania, an Ivy League university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Wharton was the world’s first collegiate business school and the first business school in the United States...

 business school. He testified in the high-profile case U.S. v Rajaratnam against the hedge fund billionaire. According to The New York Times, "the bulk of Mr. Goel’s testimony was about how Mr. Rajaratnam, a hedge fund billionaire, provided financial support to him....Despite his consistent employment, Mr. Goel looked to Mr. Rajaratnam for financial support." This established the requisite quid pro quo for an insider trading conviction.

Intel had little knowledge of Goel's activities, with CEO Paul Otellini

Paul Otellini

Paul S. Otellini is an American businessman current president and chief executive of Intel. He is also on the board of directors of Google.- Early life and Education :...

saying, "My first thought was, 'Who's Rajiv Goel' -- I'd never heard of this guy," according to a Fox transcript. "He's a fairly low-level guy."