Hector Ruiz is the unnamed AMD executive accused in a criminal case, filed by the Manhattan U.S. Attorney's office this month, of sharing information with New Castle portfolio manager Danielle Chiesi, the newspaper reported, citing a person familiar with the matter.

New Castle was among the funds accused by U.S. authorities of engaging in the insider-trading scheme that has engulfed hedge fund Galleon Group.

New York-based Galleon is at the centre of the biggest insider-trading case in decades.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Ruiz specifically imparted sensitive information about the restructuring of AMD at the time, in which it spun off its manufacturing operations into the Globalfoundries joint venture with an Abu Dhabi firm.

Ruiz is now chairman of contract chipmaker and AMD-affiliate Globalfoundries.

Federal prosecutors have accused Raj Rajaratnam, Galleon's co-founder, and five others of illegally trading on non-public information in a scheme that netted them $20 million (12.2 million pounds). Rajaratnam has said he is innocent.

Ruiz and AMD did not reply to requests for comment.

Globalfoundries spokesman Jon Carvill said the company had not been contacted by the Justice Department or any other government agency in connection with the insider-trading case. He said Globalfoundries had no other comment because the issue predated the launch of Globalfoundries.

(Reporting by Ian Sherr and Edwin Chan; Editing by Toni Reinhold)