By Emily Flitter

NEW YORK, Jan 9 (Reuters) - A former hedge fund consultant who cooperated with the government's sprawling insider trading probe was sentenced to two years probation on Wednesday by a federal judge.

U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff sentenced Wesley Wang in an afternoon proceeding during which the judge said, "the extent of Mr. Wang's cooperation goes beyond that of most cooperators."

Wang, who is required to continue to assist authorities as part of his sentence, pled guilty in July to two counts of conspiracy to commit securities fraud.

Prosecutors used testimony from Wang this past summer in the insider trading trial of a former employer, money manager Doug Whitman, who ran Whitman Capital in Menlo Park, California. Whitman was convicted in August on securities fraud and conspiracy charges.

Prosecutors said Wang provided them with information on as many as 20 people who may have been involved in improper trading. Another person he named was Dipak Patel, a former portfolio manager at Steven A. Cohen's $14 billion hedge fund SAC Capital advisors.

Wang, who once worked for Patel at SAC, said he passed on inside information to Patel about several technology companies, according to a sentencing filed by prosecutors before the proceeding.

"I am disappointed in myself and I am trying to contribute back to my society," Wang said during the proceeding. Wang currently lives in northern California.

Patel, who was Wang's former supervisor at SAC Capital, recently surfaced in a letter federal prosecutors filed in connection with Wednesday's sentencing. Patel, who left SAC Capital in February 2011 and has not been charged with any wrongdoing, could not be reached for comment.

An SAC Capital spokesman did not return a request for comment.

The case is U.S. v. Wesley Wang, US District Court Southern District of New York, 12-cr-00541.

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