[ by Melanie Gretchen ] A former Barclays trader is out of the federal spotlight, to the relief of the New York hedge fund that currently employs him.  WCG Management sent an e-mail to its investors on Sunday to let them know that Ryan Reich "has cooperated" with FINRA's criminal investigation into the alleged rigging of international benchmark interest rates.  To distance itself from the probe – for which the British bank has already agreed to pay $453 million to settle charges that it manipulated Libor – WCG informed its investors that the $3.4 billion fund is not under investigation in the Libor probe. The Barclays Touch? Mr. Reich joined WCG Management in 2010, after he was fired from the British bank for sending allegedly inappropriate e-mails about Libor.  At Barclays, Mr. Reich was a relatively junior trader on the firm's U.S. dollar swaps trading desk in New York.  Since then, his work at WCG has not been investigated, the internal e-mail said.  Unlike banks, hedge funds have not drawn authority scrutiny in the Libor probe. Nevertheless, Mr. Reich has hired Ira Lee Sorkin, a partner in the white collar defense group at Lowenstein Sandler, to represent him.  The former federal prosecutor and top lawyer for the SEC and has represented a number of notable clients over the years, including Bernie Madoff.  For its part, WCG will not reassign Mr. Reich because it believes he has done nothing inappropriate at the fund, according to a person familiar with the firm.  WCG is  a macro hedge fund that specializes in trading bonds, currencies, and interest rate swaps.  With leverage, it controls some $13 billion assets, according to regulatory filings. For further details, go to [Reuters, 8/10/12].