Rajaratnam, who didn't take the stand at trial in his own defense, was convicted of five counts of conspiracy and nine counts of securities fraud. He still faces a lawsuit against both him and Galleon by the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission.
The far-flung Galleon scandal may have derailed or damaged the careers of executives who weren't involved in the trading.
Prosecutors said Rajaratnam's sources of information included Rajat Gupta, who until last year was a director at Goldman Sachs Group Inc., and Kamal Ahmed, a Morgan Stanley investment banker who prosecutors said passed tips through a Galleon trader. Both deny wrongdoing, and neither has been charged with a crime in the case.
Witnesses testifying for the prosecution included Goldman Sachs Chief Executive Officer Lloyd Blankfein, who said Gupta violated the company's confidentiality policies by allegedly telling Rajaratnam about its earnings and strategic plans.
Robert Moffat, a former International Business Machines Corp. executive, was sentenced to six months in prison for leaking tips to Rajaratnam co-defendant and New Castle Funds LLC analyst Danielle Chiesi. Moffat said he had an "intimate relationship" with Chiesi and said she had "played him" to get inside information.
Hector Ruiz, the former chairman of Advanced Micro Devices Inc., also gave inside information to Chiesi, according to prosecutors. Ruiz hasn't been charged with a crime.
Galleon was once among the 10 largest hedge funds, managing $7 billion at its peak in 2008. Rajaratnam's net worth of $1.3 billion made him the 559th richest person in the world, Forbes Magazine said in 2009.
Before his arrest on Oct. 16, 2009, Rajaratnam claimed that Galleon analysts had an advantage over rivals because most were trained as engineers and all focused exclusively on research.
"They don't get blindsided by the marketing hype," Rajaratnam said of his analysts in the book "The New Investment Superstars: 13 Great Investors and Their Strategies for Superior Returns," by Lois Peltz. At trial, Rajaratnam's lawyers claimed his trades were based on Galleon research.
Adam Smith, a former Galleon trader, testified that Galleon's edge came from illegal tips from company insiders. Rajaratnam emphasized "getting the number" -- or learning revenue figures before they became public -- from insiders at Intel, Intersil Corp. and other publicly traded companies, Smith said.