Wrongdoers Shun Posh Locations of Old, Pick Starbucks for Rendezvous Points
Starbucks coffee helped fuel a couple meetings that played a prominent part in the insider-trading trial of Galleon Group co-founder Raj Rajaratnam, found guilty today of fraud and conspiracy.
The Wall Street Journal has a story on two meetings at the coffee shop. In the first, an FBI agent approached a trader in a Starbucks, accused him of insider trading, and asked for his cooperation in the government investigation. In the second, Rajaratnam’s brother, Rengan, met with a former Galleon portfolio manager in a Starbucks to get their stories straight, authorities alleged.
Starbucks has been a hot spot for wrongdoers in other cases as well. Russian spy Anna Chapman sent covert messages from the coffee spot in Manhattan, and undercover agents made a drug arrest at a Starbucks in Bellingham, Wash.
The newspaper interviewed white-collar lawyer Ira Lee Sorkin about the phenomenon. “The Oak Room at the Plaza is now passé” for a high-powered rendezvous, he said. “It’s now lattes at Starbucks the government should be focusing on.”
