"Jury Clears Rengan Rajaratnam in Insider Trading Case" New York Times Syndicate July 09, 2014
NEW YORK — Rengan Rajaratnam, the younger brother of Raj Rajaratnam, the former billionaire hedge fund manager convicted of insider trading in 2011, has been found not guilty of conspiracy to commit insider trading — a stunning blow to federal prosecutors in New York.
The acquittal is the first defeat for Preet Bharara, the US attorney in Manhattan, in his office’s long crackdown on insider trading in the hedge fund industry. The verdict, after several hours of deliberation, comes after Bharara’s office had secured 85 convictions and guilty pleas from traders, analysts, industry consultants as well as the hedge fund founded by the billionaire investor Steven A. Cohen.
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The younger Rajaratnam stood stone-faced in the courtroom as the verdict was read and his lawyers patted his back. Later, he was seen giving a high-five to a colleague.
The verdict by a federal jury of eight women and four men in Lower Manhattan shows the limits of how far prosecutors can go in pursuing cases of illegal trading on Wall Street.
Rajaratnam was acquitted a week after Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald of US District Court in Manhattan dismissed the two insider trading charges against him, leaving the jury to consider simply whether he had conspired with his older brother to commit insider trading. Buchwald dismissed the more serious security fraud charges after determining no reasonable jury would be able to convict Rajaratnam of using inside information to make trades in shares of Clearwire in 2008.
Why doesn't she let US make that decision?
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