May 25 (Bloomberg) -- A former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. employee was added to an insider-trading indictment against two printing-plant workers accused of passing stock tips from Business Week magazine.

Eugene Plotkin, a 26-year-old Harvard University graduate who worked in Goldman's fixed-income department, led a trading ring that netted $6.4 million on the tips, according to the indictment unsealed today in U.S. District Court in Manhattan. Plotkin pleaded not guilty at his arraignment before U.S. Magistrate Judge Debra Freeman.

U.S. prosecutors added Plotkin to an indictment filed this month against Nickolaus Shuster, 24, and Juan Renteria, 20, who were employees at Hartford, Wisconsin-based Quad Graphics, which printed Business Week. They are accused of giving Plotkin and other conspirators details on about 20 stocks from the magazine's ``Inside Wall Street'' column before publication.

Schuster pleaded not guilty today before U.S. District Court Judge Richard Holwell in New York. Renteria was expected to appear in U.S. District Court in Manhattan next week, Assistant U.S. Attorney Benjamin Lawler said.

Plotkin was arrested on criminal charges in April along with Stanislav Shpigelman, an analyst at Merrill Lynch & Co.. The latest indictment says Plotkin paid Shpigelman to tip him off to six mergers. Shpigelman isn't charged in the indictment.

Modified Bond

Freeman modified the conditions of Plotkin's $3 million bond, cutting the number of required co-signers to four from five and allowing $2 million to be secured by a combination of cash and property. Freeman dropped a requirement imposed by another magistrate last month that Plotkin put up $250,000 in cash.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has sued Shuster, Renteria and Plotkin's father, Mikhail Plotkin, 49, of Palo Alto, California, for insider trading. Prosecutors charged a colleague of Plotkin's at Goldman, David Pajcin, 29, with securities fraud last year, saying he obtained advance copies of Business Week.

Goldman and Merrill, both based in New York, have said they are cooperating with authorities.

The case is U.S. v. Eugene Plotkin, No. 06-CR-389, in the Southern District of New York.

To contact the reporter on this story: Patricia Hurtado at the federal courthouse in New York at pathurtado@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: May 25, 2006 18:34 EDT