Raj Rajaratnam's prison date changes to Dec 5: Judge

 Convicted hedge fund founder Raj Rajaratnam will report to prison on Dec 5 to begin serving his 11-year prison sentence for insider trading, a U.S. judge ruled on Monday, extending his liberty by a week.

Rajaratnam, 54, had previously been scheduled to go to prison on Nov 28. No reason for the change was given in a written order by US District Judge Richard Holwell.

The judge imposed sentence on Oct 13 after the Galleon Group multimillionaire founder was convicted in May by a federal jury on 14 criminal charges of insider trading. Sri Lankan-born Rajaratnam was the central figure in a broad government crackdown using FBI phone taps.

His lawyers have asked the Federal Bureau of Prisons to send him to a facility in Butner, North Carolina, where his health problems, including complications from diabetes, can be treated.

It is the same prison where epic swindler Bernard Madoff, 73, is serving a life sentence for running a decades-long investment fraud of tens of billions of dollars.

The case is USA v Raj Rajaratnam et al, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, No. \09-01184.