Billionaire Prison Time

Here's how a hedge fund honcho managed incarceration

“I gave more to charity than what was alleged that I made. So how can you call me greedy?” - Raj Rajaratnam

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A federal correctional officer received a two-year prison sentence this week for accepting payments from a felonious billionaire hedge fund manager under his watch.

The jailer going to jail is William S. Tidwell, 50, of Keene, New Hampshire, who pled guilty to taking $90,000 in benefits and getting a $50,000 loan from an “ultra-high net worth” inmate.

The wealthy inmate has been identified as Galleon Group hedge fund founder Raj Rajaratnam, who has not been charged in the case.

What me worry? Billionaire hedge fund manager Raj Rajaratnam allegedly compensated a correctional officer for privileges. (Photo credit: DigitasSL, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

Raj who?

So much time has passed that I’ve forgotten about Rajaratnam, who was one of the highest-profile insider-trading targets of former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara following the 2008 financial collapse.