The allegations broaden the insider-trading probe announced at last month's arrest of Galleon hedge funds group billionaire Raj Rajaratnam, ranked 559th this year in Forbes' list of the world's richest people, and five other suspects.

A Manhattan federal magistrate judge denied Rajaratnam's motion for a reduction in his $100 million bail at a court hearing Thursday, but agreed to loosen restrictions on his travel inside the U.S. He's now winding down his hedge funds.

Rajaratnam defense attorney John Dowd criticized the government's case at the court hearing, saying it was "not as overwhelming as the government would like to believe."

In detailing the new allegations, federal prosecutors and securities regulators outlined sometimes overlapping schemes involving hedge fund traders, Wall Street brokers, attorneys, a former analyst at the Moody's credit rating agency and corporate insiders at public firms such as Intel and IBM.

The suspects, some of whom allegedly discussed illegal tips in cars in efforts to avoid getting caught, allegedly doled out or traded on secret information about firms such as Hilton Hotels, Akamai Technologies, Axcan Pharma and Atheros Communications before the information was publicly disclosed.

"It would be a mistake to think that this investigation is focused only or even principally on hedge funds. We have gone far beyond that," Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said at a Lower Manhattan news conference announcing the new charges. "In fact, this investigation goes to the very heart of fair play in the business world."

Bharara stressed that the investigation is not intended to "vilify" Wall Street and stock traders' legitimate hunt for corporate information. Instead, said Robert Khuzami, enforcement chief of the Securities and Exchange Commission, the probe is aimed at restoring "the level playing field that is fundamental to our capital markets."