Guilty plea in NY insider-trading case

A former employee of a New York hedge fund at the center of a massive insider-trading prosecution pleaded guilty Tuesday to conspiracy and securities fraud.

Craig Drimal became the 21st person to plead guilty in the case.

Drimal was arrested in the fall of 2009. It was just weeks after the arrest of his onetime boss, Galleon Group founder Raj Rajaratnam.

At a pretrial hearing last week, the judge said he was deeply troubled by an "apparently voyeuristic intrusion" by investigators who eavesdropped on phone calls between the Drimal and his wife. U.S. District Judge Richard Sullivan rejected a defense request to toss out evidence gathered from more than a thousand intercepted calls against the former Galleon Group trader on the grounds that the government abused the permission it received to eavesdrop on Drimal's calls. He said the wiretap was professionally conducted and generally well-executed overall.

Sentencing for the 54-year-old Drimal is set for Sept. 9.

"I deeply regret my actions that have caused such great pain to my family and friend,"' Drimal said.

Meanwhile, deliberations began Monday at Rajaratnam's eight-week trial.

Prosecutors accuse Rajaratnam, who was arrested in October 2009, of making at least $68 million by trading illegally after he started his now-defunct family of hedge funds, the Galleon Group, more than a decade ago.

He has pleaded not guilty, saying the trades he made on behalf of hedge funds were based on public information.