Galleon Founder Challenges Wiretaps, Defends Investment Research
Galleon Group founder Raj Rajaratnam is challenging the wiretaps used in the government’s insider trading case against him.
In a filing submitted in the civil case against him, Rajaratnam says the government used wiretaps without showing that conventional investigative techniques were inadequate, as required by federal law, the New York Times reports. Rajaratnam is represented by lawyers at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, the American Lawyer reports.
Rajaratnam also asserts his investments were based on careful research rather than illegal inside information.
The case is the first insider-trading prosecution based on wiretaps, the Times says. Joseph DiBenedetto, a criminal defense lawyer not involved in the case, told the newspaper that the case will suffer if Rajaratnam succeeds in his argument. “If the wiretaps are suppressed, it won’t completely destroy it, but will definitely pull the rug out from under the government’s case,” DiBenedetto said.
