Legal News

Judge: Galleon Witness?s Lawyer Must Table Plans to Become a Prosecutor

By Chad Bray

A lawyer for a cooperating witness in the insider-trading case against Galleon Group founder Raj Rajaratnam will have to reconsider his plans to potentially join the ranks of federal prosecutors, a federal judge said Tuesday.

At a hearing Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Robert P. Patterson told Francisco Navarro, a lawyer for Ali Far, that he couldn’t continue to represent Far if he applied to join the U.S. Attorney’s office in Manhattan.

Quick refresher: Far is the founder of California hedge fund Spherix Capital LLC and a cooperating witness in a broad insider-trading probe. Far may be called as a witness in Rajaratnam’s trial on securities fraud and conspiracy next month. You can read prior stories on Far here and here.

“My belief is, if you do apply, you will be disqualified and your firm may be disqualified,” the judge said Tuesday.

Navarro said Tuesday that he was intending to submit an application to become an assistant U.S. Attorney, but hadn’t yet filed the application. Navarro said Far was comfortable with him remaining as  counsel, but other attorneys at Kobre & Kim could continue to effectively represent Far if Navarro had to recuse himself.

The judge said he didn’t believe Navarro applying to become a prosecutor was a “waivable conflict” and instructed him to not apply at this time.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on February 22, 2011 (boomark / email).