Feds Perp walking Raj Rajaratnam at his arrest in 2009

Well, Raj Rajaratnam is going to the big house. This is a fascinating and a must read article. (Via New York Times Dealbook):

He met several important sources of illegal information through the South Asian club at the Wharton business school at the University of Pennsylvania. He connected with another primary informant through his philanthropic support of the Indian School of Business, a prestigious graduate school in Hyderabad, India.

All these contacts formed the core of Mr. Rajaratnam’s vast information network. From his office on Madison Avenue, Mr. Rajaratnam collected data about technology companies and then swapped it with sources across the globe.

….

Others included another Wharton classmate, Rajiv Goel, a hapless executive at Intel; Adam Smith, a hardworking Harvard graduate at Galleon; and Danielle Chiesi, a hedge fund trader with deep contacts inside publicly traded technology companies. All three pleaded guilty to swapping illegal stock tips with Mr. Rajaratnam.

….

Raj Rajaratnam loved to hire people like Adam Smith. With two Harvard degrees and a three-year stint as a Morgan Stanley banker, Mr. Smith impressed his colleagues with a tireless work ethic and detailed knowledge of the semiconductor industry……

[Full story and video at NY Times]

This insider trading case is just a tip of the iceberg. It is a tell-tale story of an illegal web of well connected Ivy League business school graduates with no ethics or morals rigging the system to their advantage.  In social circles, we see these sociopaths claiming to be crème de la crème. Are they?

Even when we know for sure that a student has cheated in an exam, when we bring them to the honor committee, proving such a seemingly minor violation is very difficult. For, we have to prove almost beyond reasonable doubt that the student has cheated, even when the student makes a very dumb mistake.  That’s why I perfectly understand how difficult it is to bring intelligent crooks on Wall Street to justice due to excruciating effort and details  prosecutors have to go through to build a case. My hat-tip to Federal Prosecutor Mr. Preet Bharata for keeping my sagging hope on justice alive.

Unfortunately, they only got a poster-boy while the real and bigger sharks roam around free in the community beaches and continue to prey on the public savings. Mr. President – this is not enough! Bring those Bankster Paracite friends of yours to justice if you want to regain MY confidence in you.