Thursday October 29, 05:27 PM
UPDATE 2-Accused Rajaratnam 'confident' over any trial
By Grant McCool
NEW YORK, Oct 29 (Reuters) - Lawyers for Rajakumara
Rajaratnam, the billionaire founder of Galleon hedge fund
accused of insider trading, said the U.S. government's case is
weak and they were confident of winning any trial, according to
a letter filed in court on Thursday.
Rajaratnam's lead lawyer, John Dowd, asked a Manhattan
federal court magistrate judge to reduce his client's bond to
$25 million from $100 million and to modify his travel
restrictions, arguing he had no incentive to flee because of
strong family ties to the United States and $30 million in
property.
'The idea that Mr Rajaratnam would simply abandon those
properties to avoid a trial that he is confident of winning is
neither realistic nor credible,' Dowd, a high-profile
Washington lawyer, said in a letter to Magistrate Judge Frank
Maas.
Sri Lankan-born Rajaratnam, 52, was arrested on Oct. 16,
along with five others in what U.S. prosecutors described as
the biggest hedge fund insider trading case ever. The case
marked the first time court-approved telephone wire taps were
used in a white-collar crime investigation, prosecutors said.
Thursday's letter said Rajaratnam's lawyers have conferred
with the government 'which does not consent to this request.'
A spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney in Manhattan, which
brought the criminal charges, declined to comment.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed civil
charges against the six, who included employees of some of the
most prestigious companies in the United States.
Federal prosecutors have said that the purported insider
trading scheme yielded a profit of more than $20 million.
EARLY STAGES
All six were released on bond. Rajaratnam's bond was $100
million and his travel restricted to within 110 miles (177 km)
of New York City. On Thursday, lawyers asked the judge to give
him permission to travel all over the United States.
'The case is at its earliest stages, and the Government
does not yet have the critical information that will place its
current allegations in the proper context and dispel any
allegation of criminal conduct,' Dowd and lawyers at his law
firm Akin Gump said in the letter.
'Moreover, the strength of the Government's evidence, which
relies heavily on a single cooperating witness widely reported
to be Roomy Khan, has been assailed in a series of recent
articles published in the New York Times (NYSE: NYT - news) and Wall Street
Journal.'
The letter cited reports in those newspapers that said
Khan, a former employee of Intel (NASDAQ: INTC - news) , was a convicted felon.
Galleon liquidated most of its $3.7 billion portfolio last
week after investors began demanding their money.
The case is USA v Raj Rajaratnam et al, U.S. District Court
for the Southern District of New York, No. 09-mj-2306.
(Reporting by Grant McCool, editing by Matthew Lewis)
Keywords: INSIDERTRADING RAJARATNAM/BAIL
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