Raj Rajaratnam, the billionaire founder of Galleon Group accused by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission of insider trading, Tuesday rejected all charges against him and accused the government of violating his constitutional rights with its use of wiretaps.
In a court filing on Tuesday, Rajaratnam denied having provided benefits to anyone in exchange for any alleged insider information in securities of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Akamai Technologies (AKAM), Clearwire (CLWR), Google (GOOG), Hilton Hotels (HLNQ), Intel (INTC), PeopleSupport (PSPT), and Polycom (PLCM), and said Galleon analysts “[used] their own expertise as well as third party research reports and other publicly available information to formulate their opinions.” According to Rajaratnam, that research by Galleon analysts was “more detailed and precise” than any inside information he was alleged to obtain illegally.
Rajaratnam also accused the SEC’s use of wiretaps as an “unprecedented use of electronic surveillance” and a violation of his constitutional and statutory rights.
He said that when the government sought court approval to use wiretaps, it failed to reveal that it had interviewed him under oath and taken thousands of pages of Galleon documents.
Rajaratnam also said the government misrepresented the facts regarding the cooperating witness Roomy Khan. In the filing, Mr Rajaratnam claimed the government made “materially false statements” to the court when it said that Ms Khan had “not yet been charged with any crimes,” when she had in fact been convicted of wire fraud in 2001.
Rajaratnam, who is free on $100 million bond, is the most prominent defendant in what has become the biggest U.S. hedge fund insider trading case in history.
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Sometimes it seems like the super rich are almost immune to the problems that plague us normal folk. It may be wrong, but it almost seems somewhat satisfying to see one of these ultra wealthy folks get into trouble.
The whole Wall Street mentality is one built on greed, so what can you expect. Here is a guy that is one of the wealthiest people in the country already, and he’s cutting corners to try and make even more money. When is enough ever enough?
We’ll have to wait and see how this thing plays itself out, but right now I’m hoping this guy goes down hard. The greed aspect of the case is just astonishing, especially in the light of the current financial situation across the country. How can people that have so much, cheat to get more; when so many of us have so little. It’s downright disgusting.
Check out my blog on Raj Rajaratnam, his insider trading, and insatiable greed at…. http://www.thedebtgazette.com/2009/10/billionaire-rajaratnam-in-trouble/