Daylife/Reuters Pictures used by permission
Raj Rajaratnam, the hedge-fund tycoon and Galleon Group co-founder at the center of a U.S. insider-trading crackdown, was found guilty of all 14 counts against him in the largest illegal stock-tipping case in a generation…
The trial came as Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara promised to crack down on “rampant” illegal trading on Wall Street. Rajaratnam was convicted on five counts of conspiracy and nine counts of securities fraud. Prosecutors today said he faces 15 1/2 years to 19 1/2 years in prison at his July 29 sentencing.
“Rajaratnam, once a high-flying billionaire and hedge fund manager, is now a convicted felon, 14 times over,” Bharara said in a statement after the verdict. “Rajaratnam was among the best and the brightest — one of the most educated, successful and privileged professionals in the country. Yet, like so many others recently, he let greed and corruption cause his undoing…”
Galleon was among the 10 largest hedge funds in the world in the early years of the last decade. It managed $7 billion at its peak in 2008. Rajaratnam’s net worth then was $1.3 billion…
The case was the first one focused exclusively on insider trading in which prosecutors wiretapped their targets’ telephone conversations, a tactic used in organized-crime investigations. Jurors heard more than 40 recordings of Rajaratnam, in some of which he can be heard gathering secrets from his sources…
Rajaratnam used inside information to trade ahead of public announcements about earnings, forecasts, mergers and spinoffs involving more than a dozen companies, according to the evidence at the trial. Among them were Intel, Goldman Sachs, Google, ATI Technologies, Akamai and Hilton Hotels…
Rajaratnam’s case was the most prominent amid a widespread U.S. crackdown on insider trading. Bharara, who is directing the nationwide probe, said his office has charged 47 people with insider-trading crimes during the past 18 months, and that Rajaratnam is the 35th person to be convicted.
Watching comments and discussion this afternoon – it’s clear how much of a shock the DOJ investigation has been to the ivory towers of Wall Street. The biggest shock to these clowns is that they are now being treated as peers of mafioso and drug dealers, their equals in corruption and thievery.
Though wiretaps have been used against racketeers for decades, this has scared the crap out of Wall Street.
I can’t document this but I believe this sort of behavior is the norm rather than the exception.
47 charged and 35 convictions and this is the first one I have heard of? How come I haven’t been reading about this on this blog?
well–there were 1000’s of prosections after the Savings and Loan runup and bust and such “after the fact” “after too many get too rich” the criminality only increased.
You/we need ENFORCEMENT BEFORE THE FACT, not criminal catching after the fact.
Still no meaningful profit skimming controls put in place. We can expect NOTHING BUT MORE OF THE SAME–after the PUKES gut social security and healthcare/medicare.
Their scheme to starve the beast appears to be working. sound and fury against it, but it appears to be working.
Why the Rublican voting base goes along with their own destruction is beyond me–can’t they see the smoke, smell the flesh????
They’re all for it thinking the line they are in has a fork in the road to their own success because they are such masters of their own fantasy worlds.
there ain’t no fork, it is a fantasy world.
Wake up PUKES–you are taking us all down.
just another one of those bad apples in the orchard no one really goes to anymore.
So insider trading is illegal and will be punished.
But outright fraud: i.e. selling bundled debt securities knowing they are worthless, is still ok.
Outright fraud is expected.
Scapegoat justice to appease the masses. I wonder how much Goldman disliked this guy.
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Fall guy… irrelevant.
-s
#2 bobo
Isn’t it your boy in the seat now that’s allowing stuff like leveraging at 40 to 1 when it should probably be closer to 12 to 1 ? It’s all games and smoke and mirrors with Wall St. ALL of it, not just Republicrats.
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#9–Just Looking==yes, one of the biggest FAILURES of Obama is not to push for financial reform. How much of that is caused by the PUKES being militantly against any reform, I can’t tell, but probably “some”?
Way too many Obama failures are based on him not overcoming PUKE objections, or being PUKE light himself. War in Afghan being chief among them.
Yes, the only thing that is truly bipartisan in American Politics is how terrible both parties are. Both bad. Both liars and hypocrites. Both at the corporate fraud trough. but they aren’t the same–Pukes being demonstrably worse. At least the Dumbo’s try to hide they aren’t bought and paid for by Corporate Interests. The pukes apologize for not being more corrupt that way than they are, if such were even possible.
I laugh at your ignorance. Thanks for the memories (and your tax dollars)suckers! Soon we will be in the middle of everything, extracting our tithe as we wish and you will pay happily.
We are pro at contributing and producing nothing, while still maintaining our protrusile presence in your ass.
All your ass belongs to me!
Now Angel, your antiJewish history is clear, but do you really think you’re making a point?
Anyway, what we need to understand is that the securities markets are big scam designed to free the poor of thier money. Without regard to background.
And Bush wanted the markets to take over Social Security.
#2 Bobbo I may be mistaken, but I believe this is the first one to go all the way to trial. Something like 40 were caught up in this particular probe, and almost everyone else made a deal. But with this guys bank account he was able to hire EXCELLENT lawyers and decided to roll the dice.
Does not help his case when the Feds have on tape a long time friend on several company boards telling him that this particular company would reduce their earnings forecast the day before the announcement.
#13, What.
Apart from Bernie Madoff who else from Wall St. got jailed?
Martha Stewart doesn’t count because we all rooted to see her eat some muff’ in jail.
#15 Angel
here is link to story about someone jailed over the homeloan mess, just not someone from Wall Street. Read it for the lengths the Feds were willing to go to.
http://businessinsider.com/charlie-engle-2011-3
Now we got to jail the banker scum who were selling mortgage backed securities while also betting on their failure, knowing their were crap.
I’ll bet 1 full ounce of Gold that this guy will get a full pardon in the next 4-5 years, while Madoff will die in prison.
>> TooManyPuppies said, on May 11th, 2011 at 6:38 pm
>> I’ll bet 1 full ounce of Gold that this guy will get a full pardon in the next 4-5 years, while Madoff will die in prison.
Why in the world would Obama pardon this guy?
When I lived in Dubai, my friends told me that Rajaratnam permanently kept a suite of rooms at the Burj al Arab, at the cost of thousands of dollars every night! Even when he wasn’t there!
The rich are too rich. This is not good for the world.
His problem is that his name wasn’t Biff or Jock or Andrew.
His foreign sounding same (and color) are what got him caught and sentenced (but the fact that he got the money is what will get him sent back to Mumbai ti live like a fucking pasha while we suck wind.)
Wall Street justice is illusory. Martha Stewart taught us that.
Let’s see,
5 Yeats in a country club prison- out early for good behavior-made 1 Billion Dollars–sounds like a good deal to me where do I sign up?
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@#19
Greg, I said the same exact thing when the last two monkey’s turned in their pardon lists on their way out the door. I can guarantee I’ll be saying the same thing when the current monkey exits.
He made poor widows rich. Give him that.
TooManyMonkeys,
Oh, I’m sure Obama will issue some pardons. All presidents do.
But you are absolutely sure Obama will pardon Rajaratnam and not Madoff.
Why are you so sure of this?
Nothing concrete. Just a feeling, which are usually right when I get them after everything is said and done in the end. This guy might have the right connections that ties him cheek to cheek with some of the people who own the Obama administration. Perhaps Little Timmy, Helicopter Ben, or one of the other numerous Wall Street and big bank insiders Obama has working for or advising him. Some of whom advocated for and created the policies that created the current economic cluster fuck we’re in. We’ll see when the final act is over and the curtain closes.
The story doesn’t make sense. The headline makes him sound like a criminal, but all he did was insider trading? So what was the crime?
This board has posting guidelines? Who knew?
He’s going to run before prison. Vietnam is one obvious option although he could live offshore indefinitely with the kind of dough he has.