NEW YORK — Lawyers for a wealthy hedge-fund operator accused of making as much as $50 million through insider trades asked a judge Friday to conclude the government unconstitutionally secretly recorded over 2,400 conversations of their client and 130 others.
The court filing by attorneys for Raj Rajaratnam, 52, below, was an attempt to eliminate a key part of evidence against the Galleon Group portfolio manager arrested last fall in a case prosecutors touted as a “wake-up call for Wall Street.” Prosecutors say the case represents the first use of wiretaps in a hedge-fund insider-trading case. Wiretaps, which require court authorization, are commonly used in cases involving narcotics, organized crime or terrorism.
Lawyers for the Sri Lanka-born Rajaratnam, once described as one of the richest men in America, say the government never should have been allowed to ask that wiretaps be used against their client because Congress never authorized their use in insider-trading cases.
They also say any evidence resulting from the wiretaps should be thrown out because the government obtained permission for them through a sworn FBI affidavit full of ” false statements.” The Associated Press
