Whitewashing his sins with his version of “Uneven Justice”

Sri Lankan born American Raj Rajaratnam hit the headlines not so long ago, alas for the wrong reasons. He was sentenced to an 11-year prison term for his direct involvement in insider trading in the US stock market becoming a billionaire. He served seven and a half years in jail.

Calling himself the "respectful founder" of the "iconic" hedge fund, Galleon Group, he shamed the Sri Lankan-American community by what he did. Now, he tries to 'whitewash' himself by saying he was framed by corrupt FBI agents who wiretapped him, New York's prosecutors who accused him of "greed" but went on to work for private law firms after his case to feed their own greed, the US Justice Department and everyone who put him in jail. He says in a book he has written titled UNEVEN JUSTICE that he was singled out.

The arrest of Rajaratnam hit the headlines not merely for his shady business dealings but an intricate tale of sex, drugs, rock 'n' roll and his lifestyle.

No doubt his conviction was a feather in the cap of the IndianAmerican New York prosecutor Preet Bharara who wrote a book himself called DOING JUSTICE where he refers to the Raj Rajaratnam case and how US newspapers, including the Wall Street Journal referred to a Sri Lankan immigrant being prosecuted by an Indian immigrant.

In UNEVEN JUSTICE, Rajaratnam says no investor sued him or his company and that everything was above board. There is incredible confusion of what is illegal in dealings in the stock market, a "murky" set of laws. Sri Lanka has also been long grappling with insider trading and the millions that were made in the stock market that earned the dubious title "The Laundry".

The New York attorney Bharara says that there was a lot of legal work Galleon Group did but merely because one drives below the speed limit most of the time it doesn't mean they do it all the time.

The Galleon Group managed USD seven billion worth of stocks at the time, and had its reverberations in Sri Lanka as well with former Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake implicated in dealing with Rajaratnam, but was later acquitted by court.