Rajaratnam files appeal against handing over wiretaps

I / New York February 12, 2010, 13:44 IST

Sri Lankan born billionaire Raj Rajaratnam, facing charges in an insider-trading probe, has filed an emergency motion in an appeals court to block the ruling of a Federal court to hand over wiretap recordings in a separate civil suit to the Securities Exchange Commission.

The Wall Street Journal reported that the Rajaratanam’s lawyer wrote in a court order that the order "forces two defendants in a pending criminal action to disclose in civil discovery almost 20,000 sealed, untested wiretaps of their own private telephone conversations," which is against wiretapping rules.

Earlier this week, federal prosecutors added new criminal charges based on informations they received from co-defendants who have pleaded guilty in what has been described as the largest insider trading scheme in 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.

This is the first case to use authorised wiretaps and the investigators are still on the job.