Galleon’s Rajaratnam Found Guilty

[PfcHammer]

Source: The New York Times

May 11, 2011, 10:50 am Legal/Regulatory | The Galleon Trial
Galleon’s Rajaratnam Found Guilty
By PETER LATTMAN

Raj Rajaratnam, the billionaire investor who once ran one of the world’s largest hedge funds, was found guilty of fraud and conspiracy on Wednesday by a federal jury in Manhattan. He is the most prominent figure convicted in the government’s crackdown on insider trading on Wall Street.

Mr. Rajaratnam, who was convicted on all 14 counts, faces up to 25 years in prison when he is sentenced.

Mr. Rajaratnam is expected to appeal.

The government built its case against Mr. Rajaratnam with powerful wiretap evidence. Over a nine-month stretch in 2008, federal agents secretly recorded Mr. Rajaratnam’s telephone conversations. They listened in as Mr. Rajaratnam brazenly – and matter-of-factly – swapped inside stock tips with corporate insiders and fellow traders.

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Read more: http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/05/11/rajaratnam-found-guilty/

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I hope he gets what he deserves.

The whole case history is here, http://dealbook.nytimes.com/tag/galleon-group/ http://topics.wsj.com/subject/G/galleon-group/5451

[bongbong]

1. Selected to take the fall

Somebody has to do it so the thousands of bigger corporate criminals can enjoy their many yachts & sumptuous homes in peace

[rhett o rick]

2. Did I hear a collective sigh of relief. The problem is solved. nm

[makhno]

3. A morally bankrupt asshole no doubt

But out of all the thieves on Wall St., they really, really had to focus on someone of Indian descent?

[Wilmer]

4. A morally bankrupt asshole no doubt

I was thinking the same thing; thanks for coming out and saying it.

[pscot]

5. A dark skinned, foreign

morally bankrupt individual. He's taking the fall. It fits him like a cheap suit.

[elleng]

7. The U.S Attorney's of Indian descent; defendant=SriLankan.

Bigger/better point, imo, is there would be much better big 'fraud' news if they went after financial fraudsters; insider trading ain't that.

[makhno]

11. Very good point

Wouldn't it be something if the DOJ went after the boards and officers of the institutions that participated in the dismantlement of the U.S. economy, rather than focusing on sorry ass individuals such as Raj or Madoff? Or how about naming the financial companies themselves in lawsuits? People v. Goldman Sachs would resonate.

I guess these tangential cases provide convenient faces for the public to loathe and blame for all the ills of society without undermining the belief in the overall soundness of degenerate, speculative capitalism.

Thanks for pointing this out. Emotion got me on this one, but you're right, there is a deeper meaning there.

[closeupready]

9. Maybe he's more careless than others doing the same thing?

Which would have absolutely nothing to do with race or ethnicity?

[ladywnch]

6. is it just me or does a 14 count conviction seem like it should carry more

than a piddling 25 year sentence? Christ! Pot will get you that much. These bastards hurt/damaged/destroyed hundred if not thousands of people's lives and they get 25 years, likely out in 5-7 with good behavior which shouldn't be too hard in club fed where I'm sure this POS will be sent.


All these bastards should have ALL their property/assets seized and be relegated to welfare for the rest of their lives. They should NOT be allowed back into the workforce/business again. They can live on welfare (I don't have a problem paying taxes for them to on live a few hundred bucks a month for the rest of their lives) for the rest of their days.....in slum housing with vermin and pests, hot and cold running sewage.....yeah, I think that'll work. Oh, and then we can treat them like that one state that is trying to pass legislation that says welfare recipients can't have more $20 cash on them at ANY time.

Yeah, I think that is appropriate penalty.

[elleng]

8. This guy is not one of the bastards who hurt/damaged/destroyed

all those lives, this is simply insider trading. Spitzer was after the BIG fraudsters of whom you speak, and we know what happened to him.

[PfcHammer]

12. Raj's charges

[intaglio]

10. The company was called "Galleon"?

Did Mr Rajaratnam also have a parrot that said "12½ %"?

With acknowledgments to Terry Pratchett

[whosinpower]

13. Hedge fund founder convicted in inside-trade case

Source: Associated Press

snip - NEW YORK (AP) -- A former Wall Street titan was convicted Wednesday of making a fortune by coaxing a crew of corporate tipsters into giving him an illegal edge on blockbuster trades in technology and other stocks -- what prosecutors called the largest insider trading case ever involving hedge funds.

Raj Rajaratnam was convicted of five conspiracy counts and nine securities fraud charges at the closely watched trial in federal court in Manhattan. The jury had deliberated since April 25, and at one point was forced to start over again when one juror dropped out due to illness.

Prosecutors had alleged the 53-year-old Rajaratnam made profits and avoided losses totaling more than $60 million from illegal tips. His Galleon Group funds, they said, became a multibillion-dollar success at the expense of ordinary stock investors who didn't have advance notice of the earnings of public companies and of mergers and acquisitions.

snip - The defense had argued that the tapes revealed nothing more than that Rajaratnam was doing his duty by asking questions about information already circulating in the "real world" of high finance.
"That happens every day on Wall Street," Dowd told the jury. "There's nothing wrong with it."



Read more: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Hedge-fund-founder-convicted-apf-2821278687.html?x=0

[xchrom]

14. recommend

[closeupready]

15. "happens every day on Wall Street" - probably. Doesn't inspire confidence in Wall Street, though.

K&R

[HankyDubs]

18. he ain't lying

it happens every goddamn day

[closeupready]

19. Jim Cramer was just on CNBC a few minutes ago, "Insider Trading Not Common on Wall Street"

was the ticker. I was like, I'm sure this story has nothing to do with why Cramer is saying this. :eyes:

[No Elephants]

16. "That happens every day on Wall Street," Sadly, I believe that.

[Turbineguy]

17. Rajaratnam

must have had a "sell if convicted" order in as the market dropped about an hour later.

[sarcasmo]

20. Many obtain wealth through illegal means.