Rajaratnam gets 11 years for trading scam

Raj Rajaratnam, the Galleon Group co-founder and hedge fund manager whom prosecutors called "the modern face of illegal insider trading", was sentenced to 11 years in prison yesterday, less than half of the maximum sentence sought by the government.Rajaratnam, 54, is the central figure in what federal investigators called the largest hedge fund insider trader case in US history. The Galleon probe, which introduced the widespread use of FBI wiretaps for the first time in such an inquiry, led to convictions of more than two dozen people.Prosecutors said he made more than $72 million (Dh264.5 million) by using illegal tips to trade in stocks of companies including Goldman Sachs, Intel, Google, ATI Technologies and Clearwire.US District Judge Richard Holwell sentenced Rajaratnam yesterday before a packed courtroom in lower Manhattan, saying his term was enhanced due to his leadership role in the scheme and obstruction of a related Securities and Exchange Commission probe. Holwell also noted that he received more than 200 letters on the fund manager's behalf, and that Rajaratnam suffers from diabetes and needs a kidney transplant."This is a lighter sentence than anticipated," said Anthony Sabino, a professor at St John's University School of Law in New York. He said the judge still sent a message with the 11-year term. "Holwell is clearly achieving a crucial goal here, that is, telling Wall Street that this kind of criminality will not be tolerated, and will be severely punished."A federal jury in Manhattan convicted Rajaratnam on May 11 of all 14 counts of securities fraud and conspiracy against him.During the two-month trial, the panel heard evid-ence that he engaged in a seven-year conspiracy to trade on inside information from corporate executives, bankers, consultants, traders and directors of public companies.