Another Day, Another Set of Insider Trading Cases

It has been yet another busy day for insider trading on the federal court docket.

An insurance executive in Denver was charged on Friday by federal prosecutors with trading based on secret information he obtained in advance of a private investment firm acquiring a significant stake in an oil and gas company.

Michael Van Gilder, 45, surrendered to federal agents and is expected to appear in Federal District Court in Denver on Friday afternoon. The Securities and Exchange Commission filed a parallel civil complaint against Mr. Van Gilder on Friday. His lawyer, David Savitz, did not return a telephone call seeking comment.

According to the indictment, Mr. Van Gilder is accused of traded in the stock of Delta Petroleum, a Denver-based company. He was a close, personal friend of a Delta executive and his family-owned firm, Van Gilder Insurance, did business with the energy company.

The government says that he traded on inside tips from the Delta executiv e on multiple occasions. In one instance, in November 2007, Mr. Van Gilder learned from his source that Tracinda, a California-based investment firm controlled by the billionaire financier Kirk Kerkorian, was planning to acquire a 35 percent stake in Delta. After hearing this confidential news, Mr. Van Gilder bought Delta stock and call options, according to the court filing. He also tipped off relatives, sending them e-mails with the subject line “Xmas present,” the complaint says. Prosecutors say that he and those he tipped off made more than $161,000 in illegal profits.

Also Friday, a former employee of Raj Rajaratnam, the former hedge fund manager, agreed to pay $1.75 million to settle a civil lawsuit brought the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Kris Chellam, a former Galleon executive, resolved accusations that he shared confidential information about the financial results of the chipmaker Xilinx to Mr. Rajaratnam in December 2006. Mr. Rajaratnam made nearly $1 million in illegal profits trading in Xilinx shares.

Mr. Chellam, 61, of Saratoga, Calif., was the former chief financial officer of Xilinx. He was contemplating taking a job at Galleon when he tipped Mr. Rajaratnam, the S.E.C. said. He joined the hedge fund in 2007.

Christopher Steskal, a lawyer for Mr. Chellam, didn't immediately return a call seeking comment.

The charges against Mr. Chellam came a day after lawyers for Mr. Rajaratnam, who is serving an 11-year prison term, argued his appeal at the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in Manhattan.

During Mr. Rajaratnam's trial, prosecutors played a wiretapped conversation during which Mr. Rajaratnam swapped insider tips with Mr. Chellam and then told him to create an “e-mail trail” that would make it appear that Galleon bought the stock on fundamentals rather than an illegal tip.

“You know, so that we just protect ourselves,” Mr. Rajaratnam said. “We just have an e-mail trail.”

“Oh, that's good,” said Mr. Chellam.