Rajaratnam may face uphill battle to win his appeal

Galleon Group’s Raj Rajaratnam, potentially facing almost two decades in prison, will have an “uphill struggle” in seeking to overturn his conviction in the biggest insider-trading trial since the 1980s, a former prosecutor said.

The hedge fund co-founder will appeal yesterday’s verdict to the US Court of Appeals in Manhattan, according to his attorney, John Dowd. Dowd failed to persuade the judge last year that prosecutors had intentionally misled the court in their request to wiretap Rajaratnam’s calls.

“It’s an uphill struggle, there’s no question about it,” Stephen Miller, a former federal prosecutor, said. “It’s always hard, once you have a judge making credibility findings of any sort for the appellate court to review it, especially in a case of this magnitude.”

Rajaratnam, 53, was found guilty of five counts of conspiracy and nine counts of securities fraud on the jury’s 12th day of deliberations. The jurors returned the verdict after hearing evidence that Rajaratnam engaged in a seven-year conspiracy to trade on inside information from corporate executives, bankers, consultants, traders and directors of public companies including Goldman Sachs Group.