'Billion Dollar Raja' Taps Into Insider Trading Scandal Sweeping Wall Street

EXCLUSIVE: Raj Rajaratnam, the Galleon Group founder whose conviction on insider-trading charges continues to reverberate on Wall Street, is getting the movie treatment. 108 Production is working on Billion Dollar Raja, a drama that focuses on the crimes of the former hedge-fund tycoon and the major players who were taken down in his wake. Just today, Rajat Gupta, the former head of global consulting firm McKinsey & Co, was charged with leaking insider details to Rajaratnam, who is now serving 11 years after being found guilty on 14 counts of securities fraud and conspiracy to commit securities fraud. Gupta’s lawyer claimed he is innocent, but 21 other defendants copped pleas, including executives from Intel, IBM and Bear Stearns. Billion Dollar Raja will be scripted and directed by Nayan Padrai, from a story written by Sheetal Vyas, who is producing. Padrai and Vyas most recently teamed on When Harry Tries to Marry, released earlier this year. “The elements of this case are irresistible with a mafia-style operation in the shady underbelly of Wall Street offices, filled with prosecutors, wiretaps, tipsters, a moll, sexual encounters, unapologetic greed, major corporations and the billionaire king of the markets, Raja,” said Padrai.