Justice Department Probes Leaks in Galleon Case
Looks like Raj Rajaratnam’s complaints about leaks coming out of the Justice Department have not fallen on deaf ears. Raj’s attorney announced today that he has been informed by The DOJ’s Office of Professional Responsibility that it has opened an investigation into alleged leaks by the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s office to the Wall Street Journal and other news outlets.
The Securities and Exchange Commission’s Inspector General, David Kotz, is also probing alleged leaks from the SEC about the Galleon case as part of his broader investigation into information that appeared in various news outlets before the announcement of the SEC's charges against Goldman Sachs.
Raj's lead attorney, John Dowd, has previously complained about information in the press, "that 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."
News of the investigation comes as Raj’s team ramps up its fight against The Journal, which they accuse of breaching ethics rules in their use of anonymous sources. Raj has purchased banner ads across 30 different web sites criticizing the newspaper. They have also bought search terms on Google including the names of Journal reporters and editors.
The Journal has maintained that it uses anonymous sources all the time and does not discuss its reporting methods. The DOJ seems to be taking government leaks seriously. They recently sentenced an FBI agent to 20 months in prison for passing along confidential documents to a blogger.
