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Nov 25 (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department isinvestigating allegations that an employee of HSBC Holdings Plc leaked confidential client information to a major hedgefund, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people withknowledge of the matter.
The alleged leak is believed to have taken place in March2010, when HSBC was advising British insurer Prudential Plc on a major acquisition and was working on a relatedmultibillion-dollar currency transaction, the Journal reported.(http://on.wsj.com/11WbsBn)
HSBC helped Prudential sell billions of pounds and buybillions of dollars to finance the insurer's planned $35 billionacquisition of American International Group Inc's Asianlife-insurance unit, the Journal said.
A senior HSBC trader allegedly alerted a trader at hedgefund Moore Capital Management LLC, a prominent New York hedgefund founded by investor Louis Bacon, about the impendingtransaction, the Journal said.
HSBC was not available to comment.
The probe is part of a broader investigation into currencymarket manipulation involving the British bank, as well asJPMorgan Chase & Co, Citigroup Inc, UBS AG and others.
U.S., Swiss and British civil authorities have already finedsix banks, including HSBC, $4.3 billion for failing to stoptraders from trying to manipulate the largely unregulated$5-trillion-a-day foreign exchange market.
U.S. prosecutors will travel to London in the coming weeksto interview traders, the latest sign that authorities arecloser to filing criminal charges stemming from the long-runningprobe, Reuters reported on Tuesday. (Reporting by Amrutha Gayathri in Bangalore; Editing by SimonJennings)
