Charged Billionaire And Dowd Take Another Step After Alleged Informant

We are seeing bare-knuckle litigation at its best in the insider trading case brought against hedge fund exec Raj Rajaratnam. Today, Rajaratnam’s Akin Gump lawyers (under the direction of John Dowd) moved to unseal a nearly decade old criminal case against Roomy Khan, the alleged informant on which the government apparently is relying so heavily. Khan pleaded guilty in that case in 2001, and Akin Gump wants to see exactly what happened – and what it can use to challenge Khan’s credibility. 

Could anyone other than a billionaire fund this kind of defense? Is someone who doesn’t have 24/7 access to top legal talent at a disadvantage in our legal system? We’ll leave these questions to others, for another time, but late in the afternoon of this Friday the 13, we’re beginning to think that the Rajaratnam proceedings may take the title as the next "trial of the century."