Galleon Group founder Raj Rajaratnam also was fined $10 million US and ordered to forfeit $53.8 million by U.S. District Judge Richard J. Holwell, who said he concluded that Rajaratnam made well over $50 million in profits from his illegal trades."
"His crimes and the scope of his crimes reflect a virus in our business culture that needs to be eradicated," Holwell said. "When the integrity of the marketplace is called into question, the public suffers."
The sentence eclipsed by one year the prison term given to one of Rajaratnam's co-defendants just weeks ago.
The case drew intense coverage in much the way the prosecutions of Michael Milken and Ivan Boesky had two decades before.
Boesky was a stock speculator who pleaded guilty to charges and was released in 1990 after serving two years in prison. Milken was known as the junk bond king. He pleaded guilty to securities violations in 1989, served 22 months in prison and paid a $200 million fine.
The Rajaratnam probe relied heavily on the most extensive use of wiretaps ever for a white-collar case, capturing conversations in which Rajaratnam and his co-conspirators could be heard gleefully celebrating their inside information.
In another statement, FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge Janice K. Fedarcyk said Rajaratnam was no different from so many others who claim "superior research and acumen" gave them superior results in the stock markets.
"In fact, as his trial determined, he relied on — indeed, actively cultivated — insider information. His considerable fortune was built on a clandestine network of corruption and concealment," she said.
