Google suspends Market Street Partners

By Clare Baldwin and Anupreeta Das

SAN FRANCISCO/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Google Inc (GOOG.O) has suspended the services of investor relations firm Market Street Partners -- the tiny firm federal investigators said tipped off hedge fund traders on Google's 2007 earnings.

Lawyers for Market Street Partners on Wednesday said neither the firm nor its current employees were implicated in the Galleon insider trading investigation.

"We will continue to cooperate with the authorities, and we will be examining whether the company should pursue legal action against a former employee of the firm. Market Street Partners continues to enjoy the strong support of its clients," Ramsey & Ehrlich LLP partner Miles Ehrlich said in a statement.

Google is the largest of about 60 companies listed as clients on Market Street's website. On Tuesday Google had said the firm remained a vendor; on Wednesday it said it had suspended its services.

"Although they are a vendor, we have suspended their services pending the completion of our independent investigation," Google spokesman Matt Furman told Reuters.

Furman declined further comment.

Regulators said in a complaint that an employee of the San Francisco-based firm leaked information on Google's second-quarter 2007 earnings to an informant working with Galleon Group, the hedge fund at the center of the insider trading scandal.

Based on the information, Galleon made trades that netted it $9 million in profits -- the largest of the disclosed illegal trades.

Galleon on Wednesday told employees and investors it would liquidate its funds despite a strong year.

Last week, federal investigators brought criminal charges against Galleon founder Raj Rajaratnam and five others in what is the largest hedge fund insider trading case in history.

(Additional reporting by Emily Chasan in New York; Editing by Richard Chang, Bernard Orr)