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Wall Street wake-up call: Hedge fund boss, 5 others charged in $25M-plus insider trading case
NEW YORK (AP) — One of America’s wealthiest men was among six hedge fund managers and corporate executives arrested Friday in a hedge fund insider trading case that authorities say generated more than $25 million in illegal profits and was a wake-up call for Wall Street.

Raj Rajaratnam, a portfolio manager for Galleon Group, a hedge fund with up to $7 billion in assets under management, was accused of conspiring with others to use insider information to trade securities in several publicly traded companies, including Google Inc.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Douglas F. Eaton set bail at $100 million to be secured by $20 million in collateral despite a request by prosecutors to deny bail. He also ordered Rajaratnam, who has both U.S. and Sri Lankan citizenship, to stay within 110 miles of

The dawn of the Obama presidency could not shake Wall Street from its dejection over the banking industry’s growing problems.

After hearing the new president’s inaugural address Tuesday, investors continued selling, sending the major indexes down more than 2 percent. Traders on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange paused at times to watch the inauguration ceremony and Obama’s remarks, but the transition of power didn’t erase investors’ concerns about the struggling economy. Obama said the economic recovery would be difficult and that the nation must chose “hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord” to overcome the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.

Investors are expecting Washington will be a central part of the economic recovery. But the first few minutes of Obama’s term did little to ease their concerns.

“At this stage, markets in general and bank investors specifically are really looking to government as the way

HONG KONG – Asian stocks tumbled Thursday, tracking declines on Wall Street as investors feared more companies could succumb to the global financial crisis that forced the U.S. to bail out troubled insurer American International Group Inc.

Every regional benchmark fell deeply in the red.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index led the region’s losses, tanking 1,272.86 points, or 7.22 percent, to 16,364.33 — its lowest level in over two years.

In Japan, the Nikkei 225 stock index was down 445.67 points, or 3.79 percent, at 11,304.12. Australia’s S&P/ASX200 index fell more than 3.5 percent, South Korea’s Kospi lost 3.6 percent and Shanghai’s index fell 5.8 percent.

The losses tracked U.S. markets, where the Dow Jones industrial average fell about 450 points, or 4.06 percent, to 10,609.66.

Investors were unsettled by the Federal Reserve’s $85 billion loan to AIG, the huge U.S. insurer that lost billions in the risky business of insuring against bond defaults. It