iNDICA News Bureau-
Rajakumaran Rajaratnam, founder of the U.S. $7 billion hedge fund Galleon Group, was the guest on the latest episode of the Dr VGP Talk Show.
Rajakumaran, better known to the public as Raj Rajaratnam, was a Wall Street star until he was found guilty on 14 counts of insider trading in 2009 and sentenced to 11 years in prison, the longest term yet awarded to anyone for the crime.
He was released after eight years in the summer of 2019 and has documented his story in the book Uneven Justice: The Plot to Sink Galleon, which was published last year.
In his book, the Galleon founder outlined the allegations against him, the events of the times and the prosecutorial motivations that he believed were at play as the case unfolded.
Born in Sri Lanka in 1957, Raj Rajaratnam went on to study in England and, later, at the Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania. He recalled the days of his youth with great clarity — growing up in a large family with several siblings, sharing a deep enjoyment of the game of cricket in what he described as the ‘golden days of Sri Lanka’.
He described himself as a strong believer in hard work and said there is no substitute for putting in the hours. He credited his successes in the legal and financial worlds to his tenacity, but also to the importance and support of a stable family. He actively endorsed not just working hard, but also developing the softer aspects of being part of the workforce, like mentorship and networking.
Dr VGP sat down with Raj Rajaratnam at his office in Manhattan, New York, in Feb, early this year to hear his side of the story, about how an early morning knock by the Federal Bureau of Investigation on his door in October 2009 changed his life forever.
Raj Rajaratnam said the arrest was totally unexpected. He believes the government and its agencies were stacked against him. He also explained his decision to go to court and fight out the charges against him, saying that while he had the option of implicating others or taking the plea bargain route, he chose to believe in the legality of his actions.
It was an uphill battle. The trial, according to him, became a media trial. The truth, he said, “is a nebulous thing — the prosecutor’s narrative becomes the narrative of the newspapers, and the press do not hold prosecutors accountable”.
Dr VGP and Raj Rajaratnam also discussed how none of the jury members involved in the trial had had trading experience, and how the global financial crisis in the background colored the entire trial.
The Galleon chief now believes ‘the whole system is stacked against the defendants’ and it needs ‘a lot more discussion and change’.
He outlined the parallels between his case and the case against Rajat Gupta, former McKinsey CEO, who also chose to fight out the allegations against him in court instead of settling for a plea bargain.
Dr VGP and Raj Rajaratnam also discussed the other motivations involved in the cases, notably those of then New York South district attorney Preet Bharara, the prosecutor. That Bharara later went on to say that the laws on insider trading were murky and needed clarification to be effective lend, according to Dr VGP, some credence to Raj Rajaratnam’s stand.
Watch the full interview here.
The Dr VGP Talk Show is a part of the Global Eye Digital Network and is hosted by Dr Vijay G Prabhakar, a renowned public health professional and the first person of color to receive the U.S. Public Health Service’s highest award under President Bill Clinton. Global Eye Digital is a media company that supplies global news to nearly 33 million people in the Chicago area.
