Rajarengan (Rengan) Rajaratnam, a former portfolio manager at the hedge fund management firm Galleon Group, has been charged with conspiracy and securities fraud for his alleged involvement in an insider trading scheme.
Rengan Rajaratnam allegedly conspired with his brother, Galleon founder Raj Rajaratnam, to trade on the basis of material, non-public information (inside information) concerning Clearwire Corp and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) in 2008, earning nearly USD1.2m in profits in the aggregate.
Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bharara says: “As alleged, Rengan Rajaratnam and his brother shared more than DNA; they also shared a penchant for insider trading. Along with his brother Raj, Rengan Rajaratnam was allegedly at the heart of an insider trading scheme that swept up an unprecedented number of people in its web of corruption, and with his indictment, we are one step closer to closing that chapter.”
FBI assistant director in charge George Venizelos says: “Rengan Rajaratnam’s career arc paralleled his brother’s. He followed in Raj’s footsteps by obtaining an MBA from a top- flight business school. He went to work for Raj at Galleon. As alleged in the indictment, Rengan also engaged in the same illegal conduct as Raj. He reaped the benefit of insider information obtained by Raj, and he planned to reciprocate by cultivating his own source of inside information. Now Rengan’s career arc has descended to the same place his brother’s did less than four years ago: defendant.”
In a separate action, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced civil charges against Rengan Rajaratnam.
