Hände weg von dieser Aktie

Unternehmen war insolvent, alte  Aktionäre enteignet, daher vorsicht, Firma unglaubhaft und unzuverlässig, bitte diese Meldung verbreiten und neue Investoren warnen !!!!

 

:-(!

Law360, New York (March 9, 2011) -- The federal government painted Raj Rajaratnam as the focal point of a "corrupt network" of stock tipsters in an opening statement Wednesday, kicking off a closely watched trial over alleged insider trading by the Galleon Group LLC founder.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Streeter delivered the statement to jurors in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, saying the fund chief relied on a variety of sources for sensitive information, including a former McKinsey & Co. Inc. consultant, a former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. board member and Galleon employees.

“What the evidence is going to show is that the defendant often had tomorrow's business news today,” Streeter said. “But there was one critical thing he did not know. He did not know the FBI was listening.”

Wiretapping, a central feature of the government's investigation into Rajaratnam's alleged insider trading, helped to capture evidence of a long list of illicit tips, including those about companies such as Goldman Sachs, Advanced Micro Devices Inc. and Spansion Inc., Streeter said.

While not necessarily containing the alleged illegal information exchanges, the recordings show peripheral discussions, including Rajaratnam purportedly telling co-conspirators to cover their tracks using e-mail chains and trading techniques, Streeter said.

Alleged co-conspirators, including the former consultant Anil Kumar and former Galleon trader Adam Smith, are “going to tell you right from that witness stand how they fed Mr. Rajaratnam inside information,” Streeter said. Such witnesses have all pled guilty to insider trading allegations and have made deals with the government, he said.

Streeter also told jurors that the government intended to play recorded conversations during the trial that show former Goldman Sachs and Procter & Gamble Co. director Rajat Gupta conspired with Rajaratnam, providing information gleaned from board meetings.

Rajaratnam either bought or sold Goldman stock not long after receiving the tips, which included information about Berkshire Hathaway Inc.'s $5 billion investment in Goldman in September 2008 and the investment bank's first reported quarterly loss in recent years in October 2008, according to Streeter.

While not charged as a defendant in the Galleon case, Gupta faces a civil action brought against him March 1 by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission over the allegations. Gupta's lawyer has denied he engaged in any insider trading activities.

In his own opening Wednesday, Rajaratnam's lawyer, John M. Dowd of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, told jurors that alleged co-conspirators testifying for the government were battling their own legal problems, facing potentially lengthy prison sentences and were trying “to save their own skins.”

Although prosecutors said that Kumar — a former classmate of Rajaratnam's at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School — passed along information about AMD and other companies in exchange for cash, Dowd said Kumar was trying to get a pass from the government for tax evasion, among other crimes.

Dowd also attacked the wiretaps, saying they showed only ordinary and perfectly legal discussion about stocks.

“The government is going to play just snippets of those calls,” Dowd said. “We're going to provide the context for you so you get the full picture.”

Galleon gained knowledge of the market through hard work and shoe-leather research, among other legal means, Dowd said. Given that trades were profitable for Galleon only 55 percent of the time, it was unlikely the hedge fund had an unfair advantage, the lawyer said.

“The evidence will show that Raj did not cheat and did not get the kind of returns that cheaters get,” he said.

Sri Lankan-born Rajaratnam, 53, was an engineer specializing in semiconductors before he came to the U.S. in 1981, earning a master's in business administration and winning citizenship in 1983, according to the attorney. Using his expertise of the technology industry, he became an investment manager and launched his own hedge fund, Dowd said.

A total of 12 jurors — five men and seven women — and six alternates will hear the evidence in the case and decide Rajaratnam's fate. They were selected from an initial pool of 300 over Tuesday and Wednesday morning.

So far, more than two dozen defendants have faced charges relating to the alleged Galleon insider trading ring, snagged as a result of a probe using extensive evidence from wiretapping.

According to prosecutors, Rajaratnam made millions trading on tips from sources inside companies, including Moody's Investors Service Inc. and Google Inc. He has pled not guilty to the charges.

Rajaratnam is represented by John M. Dowd, Terence J. Lynam, William E. White and James E. Sherry of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP.

The case is U.S. v. Rajaratnam et al., case number 1:09-CR-01184, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
http://www.law360.com/topnews/articles/231224/...-of-corrupt-network-