NEW YORK (Reuters) - An outspoken research analyst who made waves by refusing to cooperate in the U.S. government's broad insider-trading probe was charged with illegally supplying hedge funds with tips as part of his consulting service.
The charges against the analyst, John Kinnucan of Portland, Oregon, were announced on Friday shortly before a former executive at flash memory chipmaker SanDisk Corp pleaded guilty to conspiring to divulge company secrets to an unnamed consultant. A source close to the probe, who declined to be identified, said that consultant was Kinnucan.
Kinnucan appeared in U.S. District Court in Portland, Oregon, on Friday afternoon wearing light blue jail clothing. After a hearing that lasted about 20 minutes, Judge John Acosta ordered him held in custody until another hearing on Wednesday.
Between 2008 and 2010, investigators said, Kinnucan paid insiders with cash, trips and other benefits to get secret information, including sales trends for Apple Inc's
