Rajaratnam agrees to pay $1.5 million disgorgement in SEC case

Galleon hedge fund founder Raj Rajaratnam leaves federal court after a hearing in New York March 4, 2011.

REUTERS - U.S. hedge fund manager Raj Rajaratnam has agreed to pay disgorgement of about $1.5 million in a civil lawsuit filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission, and to waive his right to appeal the judgment, court papers showed.

Rajaratnam would make the payment, representing the profits obtained by unlawful means, to the SEC within 90 days after the entry of the final judgment in court records, according to a filing.

Rajaratnam, currently serving a 11-year prison term, was convicted of securities fraud and conspiracy in May 2011. He was accused of running a network of friends and associates who leaked corporate secrets to him for years.

Former Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N) director Rajat Gupta, a former chief of consulting firm McKinsey & Co, has also been charged with leaking tips to Rajaratnam. Gupta denies the charges.

Rajaratnam, the founder of Galleon Group, has already paid $63.8 million in criminal penalties, and a judge had earlier ordered him to pay $92.8 million in a civil case brought by the SEC.

The case is SEC vs Rajaratnam et al, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, No. 11-07566.

(Reporting by Sakthi Prasad in Bangalore; Editing by Ryan Woo)