Partner and White Collar Defense and Corporate Investigations Team member Jonathan B. New commented on the sentencing of Galleon Group hedge fund Co-founder Raj Rajaratnam in the New York Times (“Galleon Chief Sentenced to 11-Year Term in Insider Case”) on October 13. His comments on Rajaratnam’s sentencing also appear in other national media outlets, including Fox Business.
Rajaratnam was sentenced to 11 years in prison and fined $10 million for his leading role in one of the biggest insider trading cases in decades. The sentence was also one of the harshest ever received in an insider-trading case.
“No matter the crime, if the rewards are great enough, people will ignore the risk of getting caught,” New said in the New York Times. “For people who think that insider trading isn’t a serious crime or that the rewards outweigh the risks, these heavy sentences do send a powerful message to the contrary.”
Fox Business emphasized New’s rejection of the argument made by some critics of expensive and time-consuming insider-trading investigations that the practice is a so-called victimless crime.
“This goes to the heart of the system. If people are using illegal means to get ahead then everyone else is a loser,” said New.