According to a report in the Wall Street Journal AMD's former chairman Hector Ruiz has been named as a key figure in an insider trading scandal currently under investigation.

Six employees of the hedge-fund firm Galleon Group, including the co-founder, have now been charged with a complicated insider trading scam which has caused the fund to be wound up. An AMD executive named as a figure involved in the insider trading in court documents released this month wasn't named but the Journal is now saying that it is Ruiz.

The allegations are that the AMD executive spoke to Galleon staff last year, before the announcement that AMD was spinning off its chip division into a separate company. Galleon bought shares before the announcement of the spinoff was made but investigators say the fund lost money on the deal because of a falling stock market.

If correct, the news will be a major shock to many in the industry. Ruiz has an excellent reputation for honesty in the industry and many are having difficulty in believing that he intentionally took part in something illegal.

The investigation has been the talk of Silicon Valley all month, since besides hedge fund staff several other big names in the technology world are also under investigation. Rajiv Goel, a director in strategic investments at Intel Capital and Robert Moffat, senior vice president and group executive at IBM.