Exclusive

Raj Rajaratnam Breaks His Silence

Tells Newsweek, “I got my shot.”

Raj Rajaratnam, the disgraced head of the Galleon Group hedge fund, insisted on his innocence until the end. Almost alone among the 50-odd people caught in the insider-trading scandal, he refused to take a plea, and got 11 years in prison for his decision. Why didn't he plead guilty? In his first interview since going to prison, he tells Newsweek’s Suketu Mehta about the challenges facing a South Asian immigrant on Wall Street, his refusal to incriminate former McKinsey CEO Rajat Gupta, and the astrologer who convinced him he'd be let go. He feels betrayed by many of his former Southeast Asian colleagues, but does not say he had an unfair trial: “In Sri Lanka I would have given the judge 50,000 rupees and he’d be sitting having dinner at my house. Here, I got my shot. The American justice system is by and large fair.”