The arrest in New York of Raj Rajaratnam, the billionaire founder of the Galleon Group, for securities fraud and insider trading has opened a rare window into the secretive universe of hedge funds, which relatively escaped public censure during the global financial crisis compared to investment banks and insurance companies. But for some critics, what they saw as the opaqueness of hedge funds winning strategies like short selling and derivatives was a red rag to the bull and these funds drew sharp criticism as shielding super-elite wealthy investors who piled on excessive debt and forged a financial bubble. Continental European ...

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