Mark Kurkland, the former hedge fund manager and executive at Bear Stearns Asset Management, has been sentenced to 27 months in jail by the Manhattan federal court.

Kurkland, co-founder of the $1 billion New Castle hedge fund, pleaded guilty on 27 January 2010 to insider trading charges and conspiracy activities with Danielle Chiesi, who has been charged separately in an indictment with New York billionaire and Galleon Group founder Raj Rajaratnam. Kurkland also pleaded guilty to substantive securities fraud.

At the sentencing proceeding, US District Judge Victor Marrero said that Kurkland played an active role in what he called "an egregious example of illegal insider trading by someone who should have known better." In addition to jail time, the judge also handed him two years of supervised release and ordered him to pay forfeiture worth $900,000.

Kurkland is the first to be sentenced among the individuals involved in the Galleon Group case, an insider trading scheme that led to the arrests of key executives. Rajaratnam has pleaded not guity for his alleged role in the case.

"Mark Kurland admitted to doing just the opposite, deploying one of his employees to obtain inside information so that he could gain an illegal trading edge. Kurkland will now have to live with the consequences of his decision," Preet Bharara, the US attorney for the Southern District of New York and prosecution lead, said in a statement.