Indian origin billionaire investor Raj Rajaratnam, founder of Galleon Group who was arrested over an alleged 20 million dollars insider trading scheme, openly gave chunks of money to the Tamil Tigers terror group in his native Sri Lanka, it has emerged.
According to Vanity Fair magazine, in 2002, the hedge fund manager urged a crowd gathered to raise money for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to support the terror group’s struggle.
“They're terrorists. We're terrorists. We are all freedom fighters,” Rajaratnam said that time.
“They're our terrorists, and you all must support this struggle,” he added.
Rajaratnam gave one million dollars to the group in the year 2000 and was suspected of giving millions more to another front group that then gave money to the Tamil Tigers, the report said.
According to New York Daily News, Rajaratnam's lawyer has called the story ‘utterly false’ and noted that it comes shortly before the hedge-funder is sentenced on conspiracy and securities'' fraud charges.
“Raj never made the speech attributed to him. He was never at an LTTE fund raiser," his lawyer, John Dowd, said.
“Raj completely cooperated with FBI agents from the Terrorism Task Force about Tamil Tigers. No allegation has ever been made by the FBI regarding his conduct,” Dowd added.