Raj Rajaratnam case - allowed to proceed

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Raj Rajaratnam case - allowed to proceed
A Federal Judge in New Jersey last week allowed to proceed a lawsuit accusing the Wall Street hedge fund billionaire Raj Rajaratnam and his father of using a charitable front in the US to funnel millions of dollars to the LTTE, the New Jersey Law journal reported.
According to the report, the suit concerns the Tamil Rehabilitation Organization (TRO), a non-profit organisation the US Treasury Department shut down in 2007 for funding the LTTE. The group has been classified as a foreign terrorist organisation in the US since 1997 and as an especially designated global terrorist organisation since 2001. The suit was filed by more than two dozen Sri Lankans who claim to have got injured or lost family members in five bombings carried out by the Tigers in Sri Lanka in late 2007 and early 2008.
They alleged that Rajakumara (Raj) Rajaratnam, of New York City, and his father, Jesuthasan Rajaratnam, of New Jersey, both U.S. citizens, gave millions of dollars directly to TRO and also through the Rajaratnam Family Foundation, a tax-exempt charity incorporated in Maryland in 2001.
Their money and money donated by others allegedly wound up in the hands of TRO-Sri Lanka, a sister organisation that provided financial support to the Tigers.
In addition, after the tsunami of December 26, 2004, Rajaratnam started another charity, Tsunami Relief Inc., which gave $2 million to TRO-Sri Lanka, the complaint says.
The plaintiffs describe the Rajaratnams as "members of the global Tamil expatriate community who knowingly and purposefully helped fund Tigers' terror campaign and spread their propaganda."
In 2007, the U.S. Department of State identified TRO in the U.S. as one of the biggest sources of overseas donations to the Tigers and the Rajaratnam Family as the largest private donor from the United States, the report said quoting the Complaint.
Federal prosecutors and the FBI criminally charged Rajaratnam and five others in October 2009 in a case they described as the biggest hedge fund insider trading case ever and Rajaratnam is presently under indictment. He has been released on bail but not allowed to travel.
Courtesy : Sunday Observer