"[1] He was the government's first cooperator and most important witness "in two of the most important securities fraud trials in history"[2] against close friends and business partners Raj Rajaratnam, the billionaire founder of the Galleon Group family of hedge funds, and Rajat Gupta, the former head of McKinsey and Company and a board member of Goldman Sachs and Procter and Gamble.
[5] In 2015, an investigation noted that Mr. Kumar had illegally collected funds from insider trading in offshore accounts in the name of his domestic worker, Manju Das.
Kumar began his career at Hewlett Packard as a product manager before joining McKinsey and Company in 1986 as one of the earliest Indian-Americans at the consultancy.
He lived and worked from multiple offices in New Delhi, New York, and Silicon Valley, traveling over thirty thousand miles a month.
According to The Financial Times, "the two operated as a forceful double-act to secure business for McKinsey, win access in Washington and build a brotherhood of donors around the Hyderabad-based ISB and a handful of social initiatives.
"[23] Kumar maintained an intentionally low profile outside McKinsey until an October 2009 arrest in conjunction with an ongoing and wide-ranging US governmental investigation into insider trading.
[25] Former mentor Rajat Gupta was later arrested by the FBI in a related case,[26] prompting inquiries into McKinsey's senior leadership and business model.
[29] In January 2010 he pleaded guilty to insider trading charges[30] and was "the government’s star witness" in March 2011 against billionaire friend and Galleon Group founder Raj Rajaratnam (United States v.
[31][32] In the sprawling case his involvement was unusual; according to a Reuters blog, "He’s the only informant who could be considered even more successful than Raj was, at least professionally if not in terms of raw cash.
[35] Kumar was represented by the late Robert Morvillo,[36] who had previously led billionaire Martha Stewart’s defense in her own insider trading case.
"[41] Bloomberg commented, "When business guru Rajat Gupta and his protégé, Anil Kumar, worked together to expand management consultancy McKinsey & Co in the 1990s, a date in court years later surely was not part of the plan.
[1][43][44][45] Consensus remains divided on the precise motivators of money, respect, and relationship, with The New York Times asking, "Why would people who seem to have it all — wealth, prestige, powerful jobs and infinite access to others with the same — risk that, and more, to provide inside information to the Sri Lankan-born billionaire?".
[41] Kumar maintained an intentionally low public profile, and according to prosecutors was "earning significant amounts of money at McKinsey [though] lived relatively modestly, his assets far exceeded his liabilities.