This is kinda amazing.
Sure, scandals and desis are never far from each other. Close acquaintances, really.
Desis in the U.S. are forever involved in some nasty case or the other.
But the Galleon Group hedge fund scandal currently rocking Wall Street is a new high water mark – Five desis count among the dramatis personae. No kidding, folks. Five desis.
* First, there’s the Galleon Group founder and billionaire Raj Rajaratnam, a Tamil from Sri Lanka, who is alleged to have benefited from insider trading. See details of the government’s charges against Rajaratnam here.
* Then, there’s Rajiv Goel, a director of strategic investments at Intel Capital. Goel is also charged with participating in insider trading schemes. The press release from the U.S. Attorney’s office alleges that Rajaratnam and Goel engaged in insider trading schemes involving the stock of Clearwire.
* McKinsey director Anil Kumar is also charged with participation in insider trading. The government complaint alleges that from around August 2008 until about October 2008, Rajaratnam, Anil Kumar and others engaged in insider trading based on inside information pertaining to AMD.
* Today’s Wall Street Journal alleges that Deep Shah, who served as a junior analyst with tainted rating agency Moody’s, passed on inside information to a third party about Blackstone Group’s pending $26 billion takeover of Hilton Hotels. The unidentified third party in turn is said to have passed on the tip to Rajaratnam, who the government complaint alleges made a profit of $4 million by buying hundreds of thousands of shares of Hilton stock. Deep Shah, who has not been charged in the case, is said to be back in India.
* Finally, we have the good guy Preet Bharara, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York and the prosecutor in this case.
While announcing the charges against Rajaratnam et al, Bharara declared:
This case should be a wake up call for Wall Street. It should be a wake up call for every hedge fund manager and every Wall Street trader and every corporate executive who is even thinking about engaging in insider trading. As the defendants in this case have now learned the hard way, they may have been privy to a lot of confidential corporate information, but there was one secret they did not know: we were listening. Today, tomorrow, next week, the week after, privileged Wall Street insiders who are considering breaking the law will have to ask themselves one important question: Is law enforcement listening?
If convicted, Rajaratnam, Rajiv Goel and Anil Kumar could be put away in prison for lengthy terms because the maximum penalty for the crimes they are alleged to have committed is 20 years.
It’s important to keep in mind that mere charges by the government against someone does not constitute guilt. In our judicial system, there is the presumption of innocence for all persons charged with a crime unless and until proven guilty in a court of law.
Additional Information
Press Release announcing the alleged charges
Hedge Fund Insider Trading Charging Documents
Where there’s a Scandal, there’s a Desi. 5, Actually added by SearchIndia.com on
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all 3 big players are in the early 50s.. don’t know about Deep.. did he get “insider” information that he is going to get caught?
Preet is probably having the best time of his life.. good for him. Not a good year for LTTE.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
You write: don’t know about Deep.. did he get “insider” information that he is going to get caught?
Deep Shah is in his mid-20s, according to the Wall Street Journal.
If you go by news accounts, rumors have been swirling for some time about Rajaratnam being under scrutiny/electronic surveillance, some people wearing a wire et al.
So it’s possible that Deep Shah may have got wind of the investigations. But ultimately that’s a question only he can answer.
Not sure if you read the WSJ piece we linked to in the post but it was not flattering to Deep Shah.
Since you are a cheap desi, let’s see if you can figure out a way to read the journal for free. 😉
Vetti Jijaji:…Not a good year for LTTE.
Not only for LTTE, this year has been deadly to too many famous figures in the world.
Farah Fawcett,
Natasha Richardson,
Jade Goody,
Velupillai Prabhakaran,
Michael Jackson,
Millvina Dean, (believed to be the last survivor of the Titanic, has died at 97)
David Carradine – The Grasshopper died on a bed hopping act…
Stephen Gately,
Robert McNamara,
Ted Kennedy,
Patrick Swayze,
…and the rest of the list you can find it here (Including of the famous animals of famous people)
http://www.bowlofserial.com/2009/09/03/famous-people-whove-died-in-2009-so-far/
Offtopic:
SI: Have you seen this video, BTW? Just have a look at it…
Mark Gungor – Men’s Brain Women’s Brain – EXTENDED
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuMZ73mT5zM
It’s hilarious. ENJOY!
SearchIndia.com Responds:
Watched the above 10-min video.
Nothing great.
Way to read WSJ for free? Do a google search with WSJ somewhere in the bar. If you go straight through the WSJ site, they make you sign up for a two-week trial etc. Any WSJ article found through google search can be read in its entirety without having to sign up for anything. So, to summarize.
1. Click on the link provided by SI
2. Read the title of the article
3. Go to google.
4. Type in first few words of article title + WSJ into search bar.
5. Read article for free. 🙂
SearchIndia.com Responds:
And you all thought only desis were cheapos!
With his content being stolen by Goras and Kaalias alike, no wonder Rupert Murdoch has a sour face these days.
Year has not been good for Roman Polanski too.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
Did no one tell Roman Polanski tell 13 is an unlucky number?
Hmm 1 Desi vs 4 Desis in Pardesi Land, awaiting next movie from Mahesh Bhatt on this.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
Before someone else buggers it up.
Mahesh Bhatt would probably do less damage.
Thanks Gora – worked well. You’ve been desistruck.
Shuaib, including Goody in that list is an insult to the others 🙂 thanks for that link.. Tyson’s daughter’s death sounds tragic, didn’t know about it.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
1. Surprised you didn’t know about the trick earlier. Old stuff, really.
2. Tyson’s daughter’s death was covered in a big way here. Guess, they have smaller priorities in NC. 😉
As it will be set in Paradesi Land, Karan Johar will probably take it up?
SearchIndia.com Responds:
No, Karan Johar likes all the mushy, soppy love stories.
I have tried it on other sites – works sometimes, but not all the time .. didn’t expect WSJ to be so lax – and I am not particularly interested if it doesn’t involve sports and entertainment – very limited area of interests!
As I have said before, if it is not covered on SI (heard of MJ’s death on SI), I don’t get it. So cover it all (no pun intended), SI.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
You write: So cover it all …. SI.
Nee kaettal, naan mattaen endra solvaen kanna. 😉
I guess this year also has seen the tragic death of John Travolta’s son too. Too many tragedies this year.
Of course there is the never ending tragedy of Pakistan,Iraq, Afghanistan, but that’s another story.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
You write: I guess this year also has seen the tragic death of John Travolta’s son too.
Why is Jett Travolta’s death a tragedy for y’all.
Just because he was John Travolta’s son?
Did Jett do anything notable in his life? Please do enlighten us.
Did Jett start something like Alex’s Lemonade Stand. Read more about Alexandra “Alex” Scott here.
God, so many hundreds of thousands die needless deaths every year in India.
And we waste bandwidth on the death of some celebrity son in the West.
Jett Travolta’s death was obviously sad for his family but why are we shedding tears here.
Or is it the usual Indian sycophantic, ass kissing worship of Power, Pelf and Privilege at play here.
Vetti Jijaji:…Tyson’s daughter’s death sounds tragic, didn’t know about it.
Yeah, I heard about it two days ago on MBC channel over here. There was an interview in Oprah show which I missed, where he seems to be very heartbroken and been very open and regretful about his past mistakes.
BTW, he has stopped having BBQ Ears for dinner.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
You write: Tyson’s daughter’s death sounds tragic
Why?
Because she was the ear-biter’s daughter?
lovely song..
I prefer to look at this junior maami than unfairly-accused Sripriya.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4faldWW5Bo&feature=related
SearchIndia.com Responds:
Deepika (??) looks tho thweet. 😉
Infinitely better than that foul-mouthed fatso Sripriya.
dude/dudette, imagining a 4 year old getting mangled in a treadmill
makes my spine get a chill
now take a chillpill 😉
SearchIndia.com Responds:
Sad, of course.
But why are we getting our knickers and panties in a twist when folks are still starving to death in India, living off roots and berries in parts of North India.
You might want to read 100 starvation deaths in Bihar in three years?.
The above article appeared just two days ago in the Hindustan Times (Monday, Oct 19, 2009).
insider trading is a part of the job ….they all do it …even in other countries ….now that some have been caught ….all will lie low for some time ….and then again they will start …
in this case since there are phone conversations ….it should not be difficult to prove unless those are not admissible as evidence?
There is movie starring Michael Douglas …Wall street ..
SearchIndia.com Responds:
1. You write: in this case since there are phone conversations ….it should not be difficult to prove unless those are not admissible as evidence?
Wiretaps by the feds are admissible as evidence in the U.S.
Many of the government’s cases against the mob (Mafia) have relied on wiretaps.
2. We think Rajaratnam’s goose is well and truly cooked.
The government is now hellbent on making a case against somebody prominent on Wall Street to prove that they are not soft on White Collar Wall St crime.
Plus, there’s lot of anger among the population here over the bailout of Wall St and their obscene bonuses while the rest of the U.S. struggles.
Plus, the judiciary always takes note of prevailing public sentiments in its rulings.
BTW, Rajaratnam is winding down Galleon.
3. Wall Street was a nice movie.
Remember the famous line – Greed is good?