This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Huththigeputha (talk | contribs) at 14:49, 19 October 2009 (Changed vandalism: Please do not cite incorrect news articles - his school history is from his shareholder profile at First Guardian. He did not attend STC Mount Lavinia.). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.
Revision as of 14:49, 19 October 2009 by Huththigeputha (talk | contribs) (Changed vandalism: Please do not cite incorrect news articles - his school history is from his shareholder profile at First Guardian. He did not attend STC Mount Lavinia.)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)| Raj Rajaratnam | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1957 Sri Lanka |
| Occupation(s) | Entrepreneur, President |
| Children | Three |
Raj Rajaratnam is the founder of Galleon Group, a hedge fund. On Oct16, 2009 he was arrested by the FBI for insider trading. Jim Walden, an attorney for Mr. Rajaratnam, said his client is innocent and will fight the insider-trading charges.
Career
Raj Rajaratnam is the founder of Galleon Group. He was born in Sri Lanka, attended S. Thomas' Preparatory School, Kollupitiya, then moved to England to complete his schooling, and studied engineering at the University of Sussex in England. Rajaratnam earned an M.B.A. from Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1983. He is married with three children.
Rajaratnam, a Tamil self-made billionaire hedge fund manager, is the 236th richest American according to Forbes Magazine (2009). with an estimated net worth of $1.8 billion. He was ranked 262nd richest American in 2008 and as of early 2009, is the richest Sri Lankan in the world. His firm is worth 7.5 billion dollars according to Forbes Magazine. As of 2009, his flagship Titan Fund has returned 20%, outperforming the Nasdaq by 33%.
Rajaratnam started his career as an analyst at the investment banking boutique Needham & Co. where his focus was on electronics. In 1991, he became the President of the bank at the age of 34. At the company’s behest, he started a hedge fund, Needham Emerging Growth Partnership in March 1992, which he later bought and renamed ‘Galleon’.
Rajaratnam has been featured among the elite US money managers in a book called The New Investment Superstars: 13 Great Investors and their Strategies for Superior Returns by Lois Peltz. Initially invested in technology stocks and healthcare companies, he says his best ideas come from frequent visits with companies and conversations with executives who invest in his fund.
Contributions to Charitable and Political Organizations
Rajaratnam has made more than $20 million in charitable donations in the last five years. In September 2009, Rajaratnam pledged to donate a million US dollars to help the Sri Lankan governmentwith the rehabilitation of former LTTE combatants. He has donated generously to clear land mines in the war-affected areas in Sri Lanka. He recalled his visits to the mine-impacted areas of Sri Lanka and underscored the humanitarian toll that mines have taken. Recalling his encounter with a young child in Kilinochchi who had lost both legs to a landmine, Rajaratnam stated that this particular image that is etched in his memory “made it an easy decision to write the check.”. He helped Sri Lankans recover after the 2004 Tsunami..Mr. Rajaratnam was also a contributor to various causes that promoted development in the Indian subcontinent and programs that benefited lower income South Asian youth in the New York area.
According to the Federal Election Commission, Rajaratnam has made over $114,000 in political contributions in the past five years, mainly to Democratic causes, the Democratic National Committee,various campaigns on behalf of Hillary Rodham Clinton, Charles Schumer, and Robert Menendez and $87,000 to President Barack Obama's campaign,.
He has also contributed $3.5 million to the Tamils Rehabilitation Organisation (TRO) which is allegedly a front group to the LTTE and was proscribed by the U.S.Treasury Department in 2007 as a Foreign Terrorist Organization. Adam Szubin, director of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control stated that the "TRO passed off its operation as charitable, when in fact it was raising money for designated terrorist group responsible for heinous acts of terrorism" . TRO's offices were raided by the FBI in 2006 but was never charged with any wrong doing.
The Sri Lankan government has stated that Mr Rajaratnam had sponsored the Tamil Tigers which is banned as a terrorist organisation in 32 countries including the USA for several years of the Sri Lankan Civil War with millions of US dollars and that he was under investigation in Sri Lanka.
Mr. Walden his lawyer denied any involvement with the LTTE . But he has dealt with the government event though there are Allegations of state Terrorism by Sri Lanka.
Arrest for insider trading
On Friday October 16th, 2009, Raj Rajaratnam was arrested by the FBI and accused of conspiring with others to trade based on insider information about several publicly traded companies, including Google Inc. U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, putting total profits in the scheme at $20.6 million, told a news conference it was the largest hedge fund case ever in insider information and then caused the Galleon Technology Funds to execute trades that earned a profit of more than $12.7 million between January 2006 and July 2007.
Rajaratnam allegedly profited from information they got from Robert Moffat, an IBM senior vice president who allegedly provided data about a possible IBM merger with Sun Microsystems that led to a $1 million windfall for Rajaratnam's New Castle funds. Rajaratnam has also been accused of conspiring with Intel Capital treasury department managing director Rajiv Goel and Anil Kumar, a director of McKinsey & Co. The alleged offenses took place over three years starting in January 2006.
See also
- Allegations of state Terrorism by Sri Lanka
- List of Tamils of Sri Lanka
- List of St. Thomas' College alumni
- Insider trading
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References
- "#236 Raj Rajaratnam". Forbes. Retrieved 2009-02-19.
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Michael J. De La Merced; Zachery Kouwe (October 18, 2009). . Retrieved October 19, 2009.
{{cite news}}: Check|url=value (help) - "#236 Raj Rajaratnam - The Forbes 400 Richest Americans 2009". Forbes. Retrieved 2009-02-19.
- "First Guardian Equities - Shareholder profile".
- "#236 Raj Rajaratnam - The Forbes 400 Richest Americans 2009". Forbes. Retrieved 2009-02-19.
- "#262 Raj Rajaratnam". Forbes. Retrieved 2009-02-19.
- "Raj Rajaratnam's million dollars – A fine starting point".
- "U.S. CORPORATE AND PRIVATE DONORS CONTRIBUTE $120,000 FUNDING SIX MINE DETECTION DOGS FOR HUMANITARIAN DEMINING IN SRI LANKA".
{{cite news}}: line feed character in|title=at position 103 (help) - "Helping Out the Homeland".
- "Billionaire among 6 nabbed in inside trading case".
- "raj rajaratnam".
- http://blogs.wsj.com/dispatch/2009/10/16/sec-charges-billionaire-hedge-fund-manager-with-insider-trading