The Justice Department sought a 19-24 year sentence for Hedge Fund billionaire Raj Rajaratnam and attained eleven years, which is still unprecedented. He was convicted of insider trading, which is not what people are really pissed off about. But it is not often that billionaires go to jail, and they certainly don’t do hard time. It’s important that the government prosecute these cases, not only for the integrity of the market, but also so people can retain some faith in equal justice. That the government sought to put this man away for nearly a quarter century is surprising to me. I guess I’m cynical, but I expect more of a slap on the wrist. This will put a lot of people on notice. It’s progress.
About The Author
BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
It should not surprise you that the government sought a tough sentence.
I practice criminal defense in the Southern District of New York, and I can confirm that prosecutors there routinely seek stiff sentences for white collar criminals, such as insider traders.
By the way, the judge who imposed this sentence – Richard Holwell – is considered to be very lenient when it comes to sentencing generally.
My initial impression was that the sentence would be 11 years to Club Fed, where there would be little to restrict his activities while serving time. I’m still unconvinced that this guy will get the same actual Justice as is meted out to the indigent…even if he was sent to a min-max prison, I’d expect him to see isolation so as to avoid being victimized by the other inmates.
I’m also betting the Media will trat this as a ‘closed book’ at this point and not report further on where he’s headed or the conditions under which the time will be served…and there are more than a few (me included) who are interested in these facts, to see how Justice is being done…
The first thing that struck me is that the man who received this unprecedented sentence is not white. The second thing that struck me is that he appears to be Indian. I would not be at all surprised to find that both of those things had some bearing on his sentence.
No, he has kidney trouble from Diabetes.
Rajaratnam deserved the sentence, but too many get away with this and this trial is not going to stop the behavior. It was a bit sickening to me that Lloyd Blankfein was one of the witnesses against Rajaratnam.
Krugman was making the point on Charlie Rose yesterday in a discussion about OWS that it is really the .1% that is excessive and it is dominated by the financial industry.