Hedge Fund Chief Is Charged With Fraud

Hedge Fund Chief Is Charged With Fraud

www.nytimes.com

By all appearances, Raj Rajaratnam was a self-made billionaire, having built Galleon Group into a giant hedge fund with a specialty in technology companies.

But prosecutors said on Friday that he had profited not from his trading genius but from his Rolodex, and they arrested him on charges of conspiracy and securities fraud in what they called the biggest insider trading scheme ever involving a hedge fund.

(visit the link for the full news article)

Ok, so first we have Bernie Madoff cooking his books. Then we have these people making hundreds of millions off of insider trading. But, that's not even the worst of it. Buried in the article is this quote:

Suggesting that problems may extend beyond a single hedge fund, the informants fed Galleon tips for cash or in some cases for other insider information, officials said.

Then it goes on to list at least 6 others outside of this hedge fund. Now, how much confidence do you have in the stock market if you know that schemes as this have been allowed to play? Do you really think that this is the exception? Or, like me, do you think it's more like the rule?

www.nytimes.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

[edit on 17/10/2009 by Iamonlyhuman]

Not that I've even played in the stock market in two years, but I've more confidence now that these people are being brought to light and apparently have no qualms about rolling over on fellow conspirators to avoid a trip to a federal pound-me-in-the-$#% prison. If the SEC keeps going at this rate, hopefully we'll see a "disclosure" of an entirely different sort here soon.