Primary Global CEO tied to insider case: filing

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The chief executive of expert networking firm Primary Global Research LLC has been implicated in the government's sprawling insider trading probe, court papers show.

Unni Narayanan, the chief executive, has not been charged with wrongdoing.

He is among several people affiliated with Primary Global who, prosecutors believe, "participated in a scheme to defraud certain public companies of material, nonpublic information," according to a filing by Ethan Balogh, a lawyer for James Fleishman, who faces an August 29 insider trading trial.

Balogh wrote that the government identified Narayanan and other onetime colleagues of Fleishman, a former Primary Global sales manager, in a confidential July 15 court filing as having been involved in the scheme.

Dan Charnas, a spokesman for Primary Global, declined to comment. The U.S. attorney's office in New York City had no immediate comment. Balogh said: "Mr. Fleishman is innocent."

Fleishman faces two conspiracy charges. He is among roughly 50 defendants who have been charged in an insider trading probe that has included the conviction of Galleon Group hedge fund founder Raj Rajaratnam. Nearly all of those charged have pleaded guilty or were convicted at trial.

The case is U.S. v. Fleishman, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 11-cr-00032.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel, editing by Gerald E. McCormick)