HedgeCo News - U.S. District Court Judge Richard Holwell in New York has postponed hedge fund founder Raj Rajaratnam's trial from February 28, to March 8th according to Reuters.
The judge did not provide a reason. Reuters reported that according to court officials, the federal prosecutors requested the postponement.
Two ex-Galleon hedge fund managers also pleaded guilty in January of this year to insider trading. Adam Smith agreed to testify against Rajaratnam in exchange for protection from prosecution for other crimes. Michael Cardillo also pleaded guilty to the same charges. The ex-hedge fund managers agreed to give up any money they made, and Cardillo also agreed to testify against Rajaratnam next month. Smith and Cardillo could face up to 20 years in prison on the securities fraud counts.
Rajaratnam's co defendant Danielle Chiesi also pleaded guilty in court. She was accused of receiving insider information from Robert Moffat, Jr., who also pleaded guilty in the Galleon hedge fund fraud scheme.
Rajaratnam was taken into custody in New York on Oct. 16, 2009 in what is being called the USA’s largest hedge fund insider-trading scheme. He is being accused of insider trading and securities fraud, generating as much as $49 million in profit. The majority of the stocks involved are in technology, including, IBM, Intel, Akamai Technologies Inc, Polycom Inc, Hilton Hotels Corp, Google Inc, Sun Microsystems Inc SUNW.TI, Clearwire Corp, Advanced Micro Devices, ATI Technologies Inc and eBay Inc.