A New York federal court yesterday sentenced the Galleon hedge fund founder Raj Rajaratnam, who was found guilty on all counts in the high-profile insider trading trial, to 11 years in prison, according to the United States Attorney, Southern District of New York in Manhattan.

The sentence is one of the longest sentences handed over at an insider trading trial although the government sought a longer prison sentences as long as 25 years for Rajaratnam.

Rajaratnam, 54, who managed the $7 billion Galleon Group hedge fund, was found guilty of 14 counts of security fraud and conspiracy in May 2011.

In addition to the jail term, he was fined $10 million and ordered him to forfeit $53.8 million.

U.S. District Judge Richard Holwell, in his decision, has taken into account the health of the 54-year-old Rajaratnam who reportedly suffers from "advanced diabetes," which the judge has said may lead to kidney failure and a possible kidney transplant, Reuters reported.

The judge has granted a request made by the accused to serve his sentence at the Butner, North Carolina prison that has a hospital.

Rajaratnam was ordered to surrender to the authorities on November 28. The judge has denied a request by the Galleon founder to serve his time in house arrest while his appeal is being heard.

The verdict and the long prison term on the government case that was built on the wire-tap evidence could encourage the authorities to use such aggressive tactics to prosecute future errant investment figures.

Rajaratnam, a Sri Lankan Tamil immigrated to the US in 1981. He was an old boy of St. Thomas College in Mount Lavinia. He founded the Galleon hedge fund group in 1997.

His Galleon Fund was one of Sri Lanka's largest foreign investment funds and had large stakes in blue-chip companies. He was the single largest shareholder of conglomerate John Keells Holdings with 52.4 million shares.

A Vanity Fair article recently accused Rajaratnam of financing Sri Lanka's decades-long terrorist war against the Tamil Tiger terrorist organization Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).