Raj Rajaratnam
The financier was indicted in an alleged $20 million insider trading scam.
Dec. 14, 2009 — -- Everything about Raj Rajaratnam is big. His Galleon Group hedge fund had made him one of the wealthiest men in America, with an estimated net worth of $1.3 billion. And when he was arrested for insider trading charges this October, the alleged $21 million scheme was the biggest ever linked to a hedge fund. It caused the stock market in his native Sri Lanka to drop 4 percent.
He was also a major contributor to American politicians, including Sen. Hillary Clinton, and the single largest known U.S. contributor to a charity linked to the Tamil Tiger terror group in Sri Lanka, according to records obtained by ABCNews.com.
A Sri Lankan native, Rajaratnam gave more than $3.5 million to the Tamil Rehabilitation Organization (TRO), whose assets were frozen by the U.S. Treasury Department in Nov. 2007 because of alleged ties to the Tamil Tigers.
Despite its stated relief efforts, the Treasury Department described the TRO charity as "a front" for Tamil Tigers fundraising and procurement in the United States.
In the alleged insider scheme, Rajaratnam is accused of profiting from insider information on tech stocks and conspiring with others to profit from insider information on tech stocks. Rajaratnam's attorney says his client is innocent.
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