Few things in life can further pulverise an already bloodied reputation like a comedy rap song.

Several years before Raj Rajaratnam attracted the attention of the Feds, the billionaire hedge fund manager came up with the idea of commissioning a promotional hip hop ditty to lure in investors.

Unearthed by the NY Post after the story broke on Friday the song consists of a Fresh Prince of Bel Air-style three minutes of bragging and shout outs to Raj and “Galleon boys”.

Here’s the chorus:

“It’s the good ship Galleon, when Wall Street has a rally on. When traders trade, everyone in the place gets paid”

Which is followed by a group of guys chanting “make money money, make money money”.

The most interesting part of the song, as the NY Post notes, is a line that appears to suggest Raj and the boys had advanced knowledge of market movements:

“When the market flopped, they knew it would dip, that’s why they call it the good ship”.

Then there is the boast that Galleon’s first trade was:

“100,000 warrants of Intel. That was when we had 300 million – but now we manage 5 billion”.

Also named in the investigation is Rajiv Goel, an old friend of Raj’s from their days at Wharton and a director of strategic investments at Intel.

The question now is will any of this be used in court?

Related links:
Rajaratnam Alert: be afraid, be very afraid? – FT Alphaville
John Gapper: Rajaratnam and the spread of inside information – FT
Sri Lanka claims Rajaratnam gave Tamil Tigers ‘millions’ – FT

This entry was posted by Miles Johnson on Monday, October 19th, 2009 at 10:05 and is filed under Hedge funds, People. Tagged with Galleon, Intel, Raj rajaratnam. Edit this entry.