Raj Rajaratnam is the founder of hedge fund Galleon Group. On Oct 16, he was arrested by the FBI for alleged insider trading.

He was born in Sri Lanka, attended S. Thomas' Preparatory School, Kollupitiya, then moved to England to complete his schooling, and studied engineering at the University of Sussex. Rajaratnam earned an MBA from Wharton in 1983. He is married with three children.

Rajaratnam, a Tamil self-made billionaire hedge fund manager, is the 236th richest American according to Forbes (2009), with an estimated net worth of $1.8 billion.

The hedge fund manager started his career as an analyst at the investment banking boutique Needham & Co., where his focus was on electronics. In 1991, he became the President of the bank at the age of 34. At the company's behest, he started a hedge fund, Needham Emerging Growth Partnership in March 1992, which he later bought and renamed 'Galleon'.

Initially invested in technology stocks and healthcare companies, he says his best ideas come from frequent visits with companies and conversations with executives who invest in his fund.

He has made more than $20 million in charitable donations in the last five years. In September 2009, Rajaratnam pledged to donate $1m to help the Sri Lankan government with the rehabilitation of former LTTE combatants. He has also donated generously to clear land mines in the war-affected areas in Sri Lanka, and was also a contributor to various causes that promoted development in the Indian subcontinent and programs that benefited lower income South Asian youth in the New York area.

According to the Federal Election Commission, Rajaratnam has made over $114,000 in political contributions in the past five years, mainly to Democratic causes,  including donations to Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

He has also contributed $3.5 million to the Tamils Rehabilitation Organisation (TRO) which is allegedly a front group to the LTTE. TRO's offices were raided by the FBI in 2006, but was never charged with any wrong doing.

Last week, Rajaratnam was arrested by the FBI and accused of conspiring with others to trade based on insider information about several public companies, including Google Inc. US Attorney Preet Bharara, putting total profits in the scheme at $20.6m, told a news conference it was the largest hedge fund insider information case ever.

Rajaratnam allegedly profited from information he got from Robert Moffat, an IBM senior vice president who allegedly provided data about a possible IBM merger with Sun Microsystems that led to a $1 million windfall for Rajaratnam's New Castle funds. Rajaratnam has also been accused of conspiring with Intel Capital treasury department managing director Rajiv Goel and Anil Kumar, a director of McKinsey & Co. The alleged offenses took place over three years from January 2006.

The hedgie has yet to enter a plea, but has told staff at his office that he is innocent.

Source - Wikipedia

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