The Justice Department Office of Professional Responsibility is probing whether the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York leaked information on the insider trading case against the Galleon Group hedge fund to media outlets including the Wall Street Journal, Dealbreaker.com reported this week.
Galleon founder, billionaire Raj Rajaratnam, was charged with insider trading which allegedly brought him more than $33 million in illicit profits. Rajaratnam has made several complaints about the supposed leaks and has waged a public relations war against the Journal, which used anonymous sources in its reporting of the case.
John Dowd, Rajaratnam’s lawyer, said that information in the media “could only have come from the government itself. In a number of cases, these leaks have included the identities of individuals who have never been charged with any crimes.”
The Journal has said that the use of anonymous sources isn’t unusual. But the newspaper said it does not elaborate on its reporting techniques.
