Valvani, charged with insider trading, commits suicide

Washington, June 22 Sanjay Valvani, an Indian-origin hedge fund manager charged with insider trading last week, has been found dead at his home in an apparent case of suicide, a media report said on Wednesday.

Valvani, 44, who worked as a portfolio manager with hedge-fund firm Visium Asset Management LP, was accused of trading on confidential information about generic-drug approvals, the Wall Street Journal reported.

He was found dead by his wife in the bedroom of their Brooklyn home with a slash wound on his neck. 

A knife and a suicide note near his body was discovered by police officers, a New York Police Department spokesperson was quoted as saying.

"This is a horrible tragedy that is difficult to comprehend. Valvani was a loving father, husband, son and brother and committed friend, colleague and mentor," Barry Berke and Eric Tirschwell, Valvani's attorneys, said in a statement.

"We hope for the sake of his family and his memory that it will not be forgotten that the charges against him were only unproven accusations and he had always maintained his innocence," they said.