Insider trading: New charges against Rajaratnam

I / New York February 10, 2010, 16:05 IST

The Federal prosecutors have come up with fresh charges against Sri Lanka-born billionaire Raj Rajaratnam based on new information they received from co-defendants who pleaded guilty in what has been described as the largest insider trading scam in the US history.

The new charges are based on information received from three accused -- two Indian Americans Goel and Kumar -- and Mark Kurland, the founder of the hedge fund called New Castle.

In October last year, Galleon hedge fund founder, Rajaratnam was slapped with 12 charges, four counts of conspiracy and eight counts of security fraud.

The government lawyers have now added two more securities and fraud charges to the list, and estimates that he reaped illegal profits worth $45 million. 

As many as 22 people have been found to be involved in the insider trading fraud. This is the first case to use authorised wiretaps and the investigators are still on the job.

Rajaratnam wants the wiretaps to be thrown out on the grounds that their use has violated his constitutional rights.

"People will probably ask just how pervasive is insider trading these days? Is this just the tip of the iceberg?," US attorney for the Southern District of New York, Preet Bharara had said in the initial phases of the case.

In December 2009, he pleaded not guilty to all charges.

On Monday, former Intel executive, Rajiv Goel was the became the ninth person, among those charged in the case, to admit the crime. "I gave Raj Rajaratnam the information because of my friendship with him. I cannot express how sorry I am," Goel, who could get a sentence of 20 years in prison, said in a federal court in Manhattan.

"I come here to do the right thing," he had told the judge. Both the disgraced businessmen became friends at Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Indian-American Goel has been charged with conspiracy and security fraud. Last month, former McKinsey partner and Indian-American, Anil Kumar, had also pleaded guilty.

If found guilty on all charges, Rajaratnam could be in prison for more than 100 years. The next hearing on the case is on February 11.