SCDigest Editorial Staff

Robert "Bob" Moffat, the former head of IBM's Global Supply Chain operations, left the company this week in the wake of the giant insider trading scandal engulfing a prominent hedge fund manager and executives from several major companies. (See IBM’s Bob Moffat, Head of Supply Chain and Rising Star, Arrested for Insider Trading.)

Moffat, 53, gained industry fame for leading the technology giant’s decade long and ultimately successful effort to integrate its vast and complex supply chain across business units and geographies starting in the mid-1990s. He and a number of his reports have told that story in print and at various conferences and events many times since the supply chain integration effort was complete.

After that success, Moffat had more recently also been given responsibility for IBM’s hardware, server and semiconductor businesses. He was often mentioned as a potential CEO candidate at the company down the road.

He was arrested two weeks ago and charged with conspiracy to commit securities fraud, allegedly part of an informant ring that aided Raj Rajaratnam, founder of Galleon Group, a New York-based investment fund, with inside information about the earnings and moves of various companies.

Moffat was placed on leave by IBM after his arrest. The company announced Moffat was leaving IBM Friday.

Kerry Lawrence, Moffat's lawyer, said that the executive had "retired from IBM, he was not terminated or fired." He had left the company "so he could devote his time and energy to defending himself against the charges," Lawrence added. He also said that Moffat was "still asserting his innocence."

More details of the government's case continue to come out. Last week, for example, government prosecutors released information from an informant and wire taps that allege Moffat gave inside information about the quarterly earnings of Sun Microsystems to Rajaratnam through an intermediary that allowed the Galleon fund to make a $900,000 profit on Sun's stock. At the time, IBM was doing due diligence with Sun for a then-pending move to buy the company (a deal which later collapsed).