Insider-trading accused seeks leave from ISB

NEW DELHI, INDIA: Anil Kumar, charged with other executives over the biggest hedge fund insider-trading scheme, has sought leave from the board of a top Indian business school that he helped set up.

U.S. investigators have charged billionaire hedge fund founder Raj Rajaratnam, Kumar and executives from prestigious U.S. firms such as IBM and the venture capital arm of Intel with insider trading.

Ajit Rangnekar, dean at the Indian School of Business (ISB), told Reuters by telephone on Monday that Kumar had asked the chairman for leave of absence "until he sorts this out".

Kumar, a director at consulting firm McKinsey, is a co-founder of the ISB, whose governing board reads like a mini-Who's Who of global business, drawing on leaders from LVMH and Dell to Citigroup and Goldman Sachs.

The Hyderabad-based ISB ranked 15th in the Financial Times 2009 global MBA rankings, and placed second among Asia's business schools.

Last year, Mendu Rammohan Rao, a former ISB dean, resigned from the board of Satyam Computer Services after the Indian firm's botched attempt to buy two infrastructure firms linked to its founder.

Satyam was rebranded as Mahindra-Satyam this year after it was bought by smaller rival Tech Mahindra in the wake of India's largest corporate fraud.