Hector Ruiz is under investigationSEC out for bloodBy Paul TaylorWednesday, 28 October 2009, 14:21HECTOR RUIZ, the not-so-beloved former CEO of AMD and current head honcho at Chimpzilla's spinoff Global Foundries, is under investigation by the SEC, according to the Wall Street Journal.The SEC apparently alleges that Ruiz tipped off a Galleon Group hedge fund manager about AMD's plans to spinoff its fabs into a separate company, which eventually became Global Foundries. It further alleges that, based on Hector's tip, Galleon Group and New Castle Funds went on share-buying spree, loading up on cheap AMD shares and profiting handsomely when AMD's share price rose in anticipation of the spinoff.According to the WSJ, the SEC isn't claiming that Hector collected any money for passing along the tip. That could present a small problem for prosecutors, as it wouldn't seem to allow them to nail Ruiz with charges of having profited directly from insider trading. But others certainly profited from the information, at the expense of unsuspecting AMD shareholders who sold their shares while unaware of the impending spinoff of Global Foundries, so prosecutors can argue that harm was done.The Galleon Group's strategic investment raised a few eyebrows at the SEC and has been the target of investigation for a while now. The company's demise last week, as clients jumped ship, was just the last nail in the coffin.Raj Rajaratnam, the Galleon Group fund manager and alleged mastermind behind the insider trading scandal, has already been arrested and awarded a jail cell courtesy of the federal government.Others recently arrested and cooling their heels in jail include Bob Moffat, a senior VP and general manager at IBM, Danielle Chiesi and Mark Kurland of New Castle Funds, Rajiv Goel of Intel Capital and Anil Kumar of McKinsey and Company. They are all expected to be arraigned soon.Hector is just the latest, and possibly a celebrity guest star, in this string of fish hooked by the SEC during the course of its investigation. However by the looks of it, the SEC won't stop here. µ