Raj Rajaratnam corrupted friends and employees to “conquer” Wall Street, a prosecutor told jurors in his summation at the insider-trading trial of the Galleon Group LLC co-founder.
Assistant US Attorney Reed Brodsky told jurors in Manhattan federal court today that Rajaratnam was guilty of more than just insider trading: He was a corrupter of others.
The goal was “to get money” and to “conquer the stock market at the expense of the law,” Brodsky said. “The defendant corrupted well-connected friends and employees to get secret information.”
The summation came in the seventh week of a trial that might send Rajaratnam to prison for 20 years. Rajaratnam, 53, is accused of gaining $63.8 million from tips leaked by corporate insiders and hedge-fund traders about a dozen stocks, including Goldman Sachs Group Inc, Intel Corp, Clearwire Corp and Akamai Technologies Inc.
As he began discussing evidence that Rajaratnam traded on leaks from former McKinsey & Co partner Anil Kumar, the prosecutor said, “Your common sense tells you he corrupted Kumar.”
Rajaratnam, a Sri Lankan-born money manager, denies wrongdoing, saying he based his trades on research. The defense will address jurors after Brodsky concludes his remarks.
