Audacity on the part of the accused to ask for reduced bail amount.A manipulator and a scamster should be treated severely by first refusing bail.Financial frauds should be treated as criminal offence as many families have been ruined and in India because of Financial scams many have committed suicide.
Update | 7:43 p.m. Lawyers for Raj Rajaratnam, the billionaire hedge fund manager accused of insider trading, are again seeking to reduce his bail, citing errors in the government’s case against their client and his firm, the Galleon Group.
Mr. Rajaratnam’s lawyers requested the court reduce his current $100 million bail arrangement to $20 million in cash and other assets, according to a letter sent on Monday to the federal magistrate judge, Douglas F. Eaton. The lawyers reassured the court that Mr. Rajaratnam has complied with all conditions of his bail and continues to cooperate with requests from investigators.
The defense lawyers also accuse the government of numerous misrepresentations in its case against Mr. Rajaratnam, including suggestions that prosecutors lied about the involvement of a key cooperating witness in the case. The lawyers also contend the government violated certain statutes by not turning over the wiretap applications prior to using intercepted phone calls to argue for Mr. Rajaratnam’s detention.
In its complaint, the prosecutors said Roomy Khan, the key cooperating witness in the case, had been working with investigators since November 2007 in the hopes of receiving a reduced sentence for an expected guilty plea. But Mr. Rajaratnam’s lawyers argued on Monday that Ms. Khan actually cooperated with a government investigation of the hedge fund manager nearly a decade ago and then violated the terms of her prior cooperation by engaging in additional criminal conduct. They cited a recently unsealed case in California, in which Ms. Khan pleaded guilty to wire fraud.
This is the second time that Mr. Rajaratnam has asked the court to reduce his bail. His lawyers argued that the current bail terms carry the stigma of being the “highest such bail in recent memory, far exceeding the terms of release for Bernard Madoff after Mr. Madoff’s admission of guilt.”
Last month, another federal magistrate judge lifted restrictions on Mr. Rajaratnam’s ability to travel within the United States, but decided not to reduce his bail at that time.
Correction: An earlier version of the story incorrectly reported that the government has acknowledged it violated a statute by not turning over the wiretap applications. Prosecutors have not made any such admission.
– Zachery Kouwe
http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/14/rajaratnam-makes-second-request-for-bail-reduction/#comment-344327