FBI arrested Raja Ratnam was the biggest contributor to LTTE
connected TRO and controversial campaign funds of Clinton
(By: Walter Jayawardhana)
 American
Broadcasting Corporation's ABCNews.com revealed the Sri Lanka born
billionaire Raja Ratnam who was arrested by the FBI for a 20 million
insider trading scam was the leading contributor to the Liberation
Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) connected TRO and controversial campaign
funds of Hilary Clinton.
Months ago Clinton announced that she had returned
certain contributions made by LTTE related individuals in New Jersey and
from time to time Sri Lankan politicians have accused her of having
relations with the terrorist group.
The website said, "The New York hedge fund billionaire
indicted today in an alleged $20 2million insider trading scheme, Raj
Rajaratnam, was a major contributor to the campaigns of Hilary Clinton
and also the single largest known U.S. contributor to a charity linked
to the Tamil Tiger terror group in Sri Lanka, according to records
obtained by ABCNews.com."
The
website added, "A Sri Lankan native, Rajaratnam gave more than $3.5
million to the Tamil Rehabilitation Organization (TRO), whose assets
were frozen by the U.S. Treasury Department in Nov. 2007 because of its
alleged ties to the LTTE.
"According to documents filed with the IRS,
Rajaratnam's contributions to the TRO were made in 2005 and 2006 through
a separate charity, which he founded in the wake of the tsunami which
hit Sri Lanka in Dec. 2004."
The founder of Galleon Group Hedge Fund , Sri Lanka
born Raja Rajaratnam was arrested charged with criminal offences of
Insider trading securities frauds.
Galleon is a major hedge fund player known for its
investments in technology stocks.
The FBI said Rajaratnam was charged with four counts
of conspiracy and eight counts of securities fraud. He was arrested in
his apartment during the night of October 15.
The Galleon group has nearly three billion dollars
under its management.
The charges arose on stocks including Hilton Hotels,
AMD, Clearwire,Google and Akamai.
The hedge funds named in the case are New Castle,
Galleon Technology, and Intel Capital. Others charged criminally in the
case include Rajiv Goel, director in strategic investments at Intel
Corp.'s investment arm; Anil Kumar, a director at global
management-consulting firm McKinsey & Co.; Danielle Chiesi and Mark
Kurland of New Castle Partners LLC, the one-time equity hedge-fund group
at Bear Stearns Asset Management Inc.; and Robert Moffat, a senior vice
president at International Business Corp. (NYSE:IBM).
The insider trading case is said to be for about $20
million, and involved the stocks of International Business Machines (NYSE:IBM),
Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE:AMD), and Sun Microsystems (NYSE:SUN).
Other companies included Google (Nasdaq:GOOG), Polycom (Nasdaq:PLCM),
and Hilton Hotels.
The New York Daily News said after the arrest: ""The
defendants operated in a cozy world of you scratch my back, I'll scratch
your back," Manhattan U.S.Attorney Preet Bharara said at a news
conference announcing the arrests. "Rajaratnam, who Forbes ranked as No.
559 on its 2009 list of the world's billionaires, was snared in a $20
million insider-trading case touted by the authorities for its
first-ever use of court-authorized wiretaps against Wall Streetbig
wheels.
"They may have been privy to a lot of inside
information, but there was one secret they did not know - and that was
that we were listening," Bharara said.
The six suspects are accused of having enriched
themselves by using non-public information about companies that included
Google, Hilton Hotels and Sun Micro Systems. Some of their conversations
intercepted by investigators via wiretap are detailed in the federal
criminal complaint. "I'm dead if this leaks,"Dannielle Chiesei, who
worked for the one-time equity hedge fund group of Bear StearnsAsset
Management, is quoted as saying. "I'll be like Martha f-- Stewart."
Rajaratnam, whose fortune was pegged by Forbes as $1.3
billion, is accused of being at the heart of several insider trades by
leading Galleon Technology Funds to make dirty deals off privileged
information.
Authorities said the Sri Lankan hedge fund guru used
his high-level contacts at other Wall Street firms to engage others in
the scheme.
"He is not a master of the universe," said Robert
Khuzami director of enforcement for the Securities and Exchange
Commission. "He is a master of the Rolodex."
The others charged includeMark Kurland, a top
executive at New Castle Funds;Rajiv Goel, a director at Intel's
investment arm; Anil Kumar, an executive with the consulting firm
McKinsey and Companyand Robert Moffat, a senior vice president at IBM. |
