Hedge Founder Gets 11 Years for Insider Trading

A former billionaire described by the government as "the modern face of illegal insider trading" was sentenced today to 11 years in prison, the longest insider trading sentence ever but short of the two decades sought by prosecutors. Galleon Group founder Raj Rajaratnam also was fined $10 million and ordered to forfeit $53.8 million by US 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 Sri Lanka-born Rajaratnam, 54, was ordered to report to a yet-to-be-designated prison on Nov. 28. His lawyers asked that he be allowed to report to the medical facility at the Butner Federal Correctional Complex in North Carolina, where Bernard Madoff is serving his 150-year sentence. (More Raj Rajaratnam stories.)