The Galleon founder demonstrated “in his own words” why he’s guilty of insider trading, Assistant US Attorney Reed Brodsky said in the government’s closing statement this morning.

Brodsky, of course, was referring to the various wiretaps played over the last several weeks that included conversations wherein Rajaratnam complimented Danielle Chiesi on how she “played” a tech exec into giving her material non-public information, told a friend he knew to buy shares of a company because “one of our guys is on the board,” and complained about a well-paid tipster slacking off on giving him the good stuff. In related news, don’t forget to vote in the Will He Or Won’t He (Go To Jail) poll, where so far 15% of people think Raj will get off.

[WSJ]

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Shortly after Raj Rajaratnam was arrested on Oct. 16, 2009, his brother Rengan went into the Galleon Group LLC’s co-founder’s office and removed his sibling’s private notebooks, former Galleon trader Adam Smith told prosecutors, according to a court filing made yesterday. Raj Rajaratnam’s lawyers yesterday filed a legal request asking a judge to bar Smith from testifying about Rengan Rajaratnam’s actions on Oct. 16. Prosecutors wanted to offer the account from Smith, who may testify for the government this week, “to prove the existence of the charged conspiracy and Rengan’s membership in it,” they wrote in court papers. [Bloomberg, earlier]

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Just because UBS is trying to get away from the whole ‘tax evasion’ specialists branding doesn’t mean this betrayal hurts any less.

A Credit Suisse client pleaded guilty to evading U.S. taxes on Tuesday, marking the first time the government publicly mentioned the bank in its latest wave of tax evasion probes. Defendant Edward Gurary was originally charged with hiding assets at accounts at Swiss bank UBS AG, but he now also admits he hid assets at Credit Suisse. U.S. officials are investigating other banks after UBS in 2009 paid $780 million to settle tax evasion charges.

Credit Suisse Client Pleads Guilty To Tax Evasion [Reuters]

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Shares of solar energy technology providers are showing broad-based strength this morning following reports that Italy has decided not to freeze subsidies for solar panel installations in what has been the strongest market for solar of late.

Reuters’s Alberto Sisto and Stephen Jewkes report this morning that a final version of the government’s rules on renewable energy “no longer included the suspension of incentives after 8,000 megawatts of solar capacity had been installed,” citing an annoymous Italian “ministerial source.”

The source tells the authors “there will be new legislation in June to review the rules governing the sector.”

Meantime, solar stocks are celebrating: First Solar (FSLR) shares are up $4.06, or 2.8%, at $149.70 in pre-market trading; Sunpower (SPWRA) is up 55 cents, or 3% at $17.80; and JinkoSolar Holding (JKS) is up $1.04, or almost 4%, at $28.16, among others.

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Memo to the Feds- if you’ve tapped any hedge funds’ phone lines, they’re paying good money to find out.

Hedge fund managers are hiring security firms to sweep their offices and homes for listening devices, security experts say, in reaction to the US government’s insider trading investigations. “Over the past six months, there has been a really heightened interest in electronic sweeps for hedge funds,” said Christopher Falkenberg, founder of Insite Security, a security and risk management firm in New York. “They’re working harder at clamping down on their information security and making sure the telephones are secured and the offices aren’t being bugged. We’ve also been asked to sweep traders’ homes.”

“We’re definitely getting more calls from hedge funds and smaller financial institutions related to providing services that arise out of the government’s current investigations,” said Andrew O’Connell, chief executive of Guidepost Solutions, a New York investigation and security firm that does not accept requests to search for government listening devices. “The hedge funds calling for these services, which includes sweeps but also compliance guidance, has grown 1000% over the past year.”

Unfortunately these high-priced services…aren’t actually that helpful.

Mr Stroz said he counsels clients to think twice before requesting sweeps, noting that “it’s almost never the case” that they have been tapped. “What led you to think this? Is it really worth the effort, or are you thinking back to some movie you saw?” he asks them.

Calling for sweeps may also give hedge fund managers a false sense of comfort. Wire-taps are executed through phone companies without any need to enter a company’s office, security experts say, and cannot be detected during sweeps.

SEC Case Prompts Hedge Funds To Sweep For Bugs [FT]

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Two in particular, according to a statement just released by the hedge fund.

“We are outraged by the alleged actions of two former employees [Noah Freeman and Donald Longueuil, the former SAC and CR Intrinsic employees who were just charged with insider trading], which required active circumvention of our compliance policies and are egregious violations of our ethical standards. The government alleges that their improper conduct together began at their prior firms in 2006 and continued after they joined SAC in mid-2008. They were employed at SAC for a short time and were dismissed in January 2010 and June 2010, respectively, due to poor performance. SAC is continuing to cooperate with the government’s investigation.”

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Her man being Raj Rajaratnam, and not Bob Moffat, the guy who twice cried over Chiesi in public before accepting she’d just been “playing”. At a plea hearing this afternoon, Chiesi admitted to “crossing the line” when she leaked some info on IBM and AMD, but will not “flip” or cooperate with the government’s case against Raj. She wore a dark pants suit and white blouse, despite calls for something more festive. [Reuters]

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“Contrary to speculation in the media, redemptions have been immaterial — amounting to less than 10 percent of our capital base,” the fund said in a letter to clients. “As you can appreciate, we simply cannot respond to every rumor circulating in the media,” Level Global continued. “We can, however, reiterate what we have already said — that we are not a target of the government’s investigation and that we are cooperating fully.” [Reuters]

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Brian Lenihan is finished playing mister nice guy.

Ireland’s Finance Minister Brian Lenihan instructed Allied Irish Banks PLC to renege on nearly €40 million ($53.6 million) of staff bonuses after public outcry over the impending payments at the state-supported bank. Mr. Lenihan also defended the government’s €35 billion bailout from the European Union and International Monetary Fund against criticisms that it was too small from Anglo Irish Bank Corp.’s chairman Alan Dukes, a former Irish finance minister.

“I’m sorry I have to disagree with him about that but I think he really should look at what Patrick Honohan, governor of the central bank, has said about this,” Mr. Lenihan said in an interview with state broadcaster RTE Radio.

Mr. Lenihan’s instructions to Allied Irish Banks late Monday contradicted AIB’s legal advice that it must pay the 2008 bonuses to 2,400 staff. Mr. Lenihan also cautioned that state support for AIB will be conditional on the bonuses being withheld. “The situation of the bank has changed drastically since the period in which the bonuses were supposedly earned and indeed that the foundations of the bank’s problems were laid down in that and earlier periods,” Mr. Lenihan wrote in a letter to AIB.

[WSJ}

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Earlier today, Fitch downgraded Ireland three notches to a triple-B plus rating, citing “weaker prospects and greater uncertainty regarding the economy as a result of the intensification of the financial crisis,” noting that Ireland’s sovereign credit profile is no longer consistent with a high investment grade rating.” According to the Emerald Isle, this is bull shit.

A source close to the government contradicted Fitch. “Contrary to the Fitch analysis,” the person said, “the exchequer deficit has not deteriorated further in the past year but has stabilized.”

Fitch Downgrades Ireland [WSJ]

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