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U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
Litigation Release No. 21255
October 16, 2009
SEC v. Galleon Management, LP, Raj Rajaratnam, Rajiv Goel, Anil Kumar, Danielle Chiesi, Mark Kurland, Robert Moffat and New Castle LLC Civil Action No. 09-CV-8811 (SDNY) (JSR)
SEC Charges Billionaire Hedge Fund Manager Raj Rajaratnam with Insider Trading
On October 16, 2009, the Securities and Exchange Commission (Commission) filed a civil injunctive action in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York charging billionaire Raj Rajaratnam and his New York-based hedge fund advisory firm Galleon Management LP with engaging in a massive insider trading scheme that generated more than $25 million in illicit gains.
The SEC also charged six others involved in the scheme, including senior executives at major companies IBM, Intel and McKinsey & Company.
The SEC’s complaint, filed in federal court in Manhattan, alleges that Rajaratnam tapped into his network of friends and close business associates to obtain insider tips and confidential information about corporate earnings or takeover activity at several companies, including Google, Hilton and Sun Microsystems.
He then used the non-public information to illegally trade on behalf of Galleon.
In addition to Rajaratnam and Galleon,
the SEC’s complaint charges:
Danielle Chiesi of New York, N.Y. — a portfolio manager at New Castle Funds.
Rajiv Goel of Los Altos, Calif. — a managing director at Intel Capital, an Intel subsidiary.
Anil Kumar of Saratoga, Calif. — a director at McKinsey & Company.
Mark Kurland of Mount Kisco, N.Y. — a Senior Managing Director and General Partner at New Castle.
Robert Moffat of Ridgefield, Conn. — a senior vice president at IBM.
New Castle Funds LLC — a New York-based hedge fund According to the SEC’s complaint, Rajaratnam and Galleon traded on inside information about the following events or transactions:
An unnamed source, identified in the SEC’s complaint as Tipper A, obtained inside information about earnings announcements at Polycom and Google, as well as a takeover announcement of Hilton. Tipper A then allegedly provided this information to Rajaratnam, who used it to trade on behalf of Galleon.
Goel provided inside information to Rajaratnam about certain Intel quarterly earnings and a pending joint venture concerning Clearwire Corp., in which Intel had invested. Rajaratnam then used this information to trade on behalf of Galleon. As payback for Goel’s tips, Rajaratnam, or someone acting on his behalf, executed trades in Goel’s personal brokerage account based on inside information concerning Hilton and PeopleSupport, which resulted in nearly $250,000 in illicit profits for Goel.
Kumar obtained inside information about pending transactions involving AMD and two Abu Dhabi-based sovereign entities, which he shared with Rajaratnam. Rajaratnam then traded on the basis of this information on behalf of Galleon.
Chiesi obtained inside information from an executive at Akamai Technologies and traded on the information on behalf of a New Castle fund, netting a profit of approximately $2.4 million. Chiesi also passed on the inside information to Rajaratnam, who then traded on behalf of Galleon.
The SEC also alleges that Moffat provided inside information to Chiesi about Sun Microsystems. Moffat obtained the information when IBM was contemplating acquiring Sun.
Chiesi then allegedly traded on the basis of this information on behalf of New Castle, making approximately $1 million in profits.
The SEC’s complaint charges each of the defendants with violations of Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5 thereunder, and, except for Kumar and Moffat, violations of Section 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933 and.
The complaint seeks a final judgment permanently enjoining the defendants from future violations of the above provisions of the federal securities laws, ordering them to disgorge their ill-gotten gains plus prejudgment interest, and ordering them to pay financial penalties.
The complaint also seeks to permanently prohibit Goel and Moffat from acting as an officer or director of any registered public company.
The SEC acknowledges the assistance and cooperation of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The SEC’s investigation is continuing.
SEC Complaint in this matter
Crystal L. Cox
Industry Whistleblower
Inventors Rights
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