News
Raj Rajaratnam hits out at an unfair conviction in a ‘tell all’ book
Billionaire financier, Raj Rajaratnam, American of Sri Lankan descent who founded the Galleon Fund, now out of jail after serving seven and a half years of an 11-year sentence, has written what Amazon calls “a hot new release on criminal law……… illustrating prosecutorial overreach.”
The book is titled “Uneven Justice” with a subtitle “The Sinking of Galleon.” The hedge fund managed USD seven billion and employed 180 people in its heyday.
The writer who was arrested in October 2009 and charged with insider trading, says he chose to fight the charges against him “because I was innocent” and understanding the stakes chose to go trial because he expected a fair hearing.
He says he believed that that with a fair hearing and a rational exposition of the facts, “the truth would have prevailed.” He took the chance despite his understanding that in the US there is a 97% conviction rate, similar to Russia and China, and a punitive trial penalty for those who dare to go to trial.
“Empirical studies have shown that the trial penalty is just about double that handed to those who plead guilty. If a defendant agrees to become a cooperating witness, helping the government with testimony –irrespective of the truth – to convict another defendant, the co-operating witnesses gets a much reduced-sentence and in many cases just parole,” he says in the preface of his book.
Its sales proceeds will be donated to charity.
The Amazon blurb says that Rajaratnam chose to go to trial rather than concede to a false narrative concocted by ambitious prosecutors looking for a scapegoat for the 2008 financial crisis.
“As an immigrant who had achieved tremendous success in his adopted country, he trusted the system. He had not anticipated prosecutorial overreach – inspired by political ambition – FBI fabrications, judicial compliance and lies told under oath by cooperating witnesses,” the blurb says.
“Meanwhile not a single bank executive responsible for the financial crisis was ever charged.”
(See Rajaratnam’s preface to the book on p-12)
The Cabinet of Ministers approved the resolution forwarded by the Minister Agriculture, Livestock, Lands and Irrigation to appoint R. A. Chandana Saman Ranaweera Arachchi a special grade officer of Sri Lanka Administrative Service (SLAS) as the Commissioner
General of Lands.
Approval was granted at the cabinet meeting held on 05-08-2024 to resettle the unauthorized residents in the railway reserve from the Maligawatte Loco junction to Padukka railway station under the Colombo Suburban Railway Project.
Accordingly, resettlements in 694 housing units which were purchased from housing complexes owned by the Urban Development Authority have already been completed and further, 144 housing units are due
to be received from the Urban development Authority. In addition, a housing complex consisting of 120 housing units is being constructed on land in Kottawa, Malapalla area which is owned by the Railway Department for the resettlement of unauthorized residents in Maharagama, Homagama, Padukka area where there are no housing
schemes of the Urban Development Authority, and the constructions of that housing scheme is being completed at present.
Accordingly, the Cabinet of Ministers has approved the proposal presented by the Minister of Transport, Highways, Port, and Civil Aviation to transfer the land located in Kottawa, Marapalla, belonging to the Sri Lanka Railway Department, and the housing complex within the said land to the National Housing Development Authority as a free grant in terms of the provisions of Section 6(1) of the Government Land Ordinance and to implement the said program of providing the relevant deeds to the selected beneficiaries in such a way as not to burden them financially.
The Cabinet of Ministers granted approval to the resolution furnished by the Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, Lands and Irrigation to appoint Dr. Mrs. E. R. S. P. Edirimanne serving as a special grade officer in Sri Lanka Agriculture Service in the post of Additional Secretary (Agri Technology) of the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Lands and Irrigation as the Commissioner General of Agriculture,
R A Chandana Saman Ranaweera Arachchi appointed as Commissioner General of Lands
Resettlement of unauthorized residents in Kelaniveli Railway Reserves
Dr. Mrs. E. R. S. P. Edirimanne appointed Commissioner General of Agriculture
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