American taxpayers could be bankrolling a kidney transplant for wealthy Sri Lankan convict Raj Rajaratnam, who was recently sentenced to 11 years in federal prison for insider trading

The cost could exceed $300,000 if he's able to secure a kidney early in his sentence, including the price of the transplant and a decade's worth of post-operative therapy. At Rajaratnam's sentencing in New York, federal Judge Richard Holwell described the former hedge fund manager as a diabetic with "imminent kidney failure" who needed a transplant. The judge also said that he will ask the Federal Bureau of Prisons to place Rajaratnam in the Butner Federal Correctional Complex in North Carolina, which has a medical facility. Incidentally, Butner is home to Jewish convict Bernard Madoff, who is serving a 150-year sentence.