Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Rajaratnam case goes to jurors on Monday
From The Hindu
The high-profile case of Raj Rajaratnam, the hedge fund manager being prosecuted on insider trading charges, has drawn closer to a verdict even as jurors are expected to start finalising their view on his culpability on Monday.
Having entered a not guilty plea, Mr. Rajaratnam's legal team concluded defence arguments this week, building its case around the claim that all the alleged insider trades by Mr. Rajaratnam and his associates at the Galleon hedge fund were only based on publicly available information.
However, prosecutors argued that the most powerful evidence of his guilt was “his own voice,” in a reference to more than 40 secretly recorded phone conversations that he had with other suspects.
One prosecutor, Reed Brodsky, was quoted as saying, “The tapes provided devastating evidence of the defendant's crime in real time... These calls have stripped away the veil of legitimacy.”
In of one of the largest insider-trading cases in recent history, Mr. Rajaratnam was arrested, in October 2009, on 14 charges relating to securities fraud and conspiracy, and allegations that he made $54 million from illicit trades. If he is convicted, he will face up to 25 years in prison, according to sources.
According to reports prosecutors used those wire taps to retrace “the vast and complicated web of informants and traders, giving jurors a step-by-step outline of their case and the evidence supporting it.” Among those implicated through the wire taps and informants was Rajat Gupta, a former Managing Director of consulting giant McKinsey and Company.
The order against Mr. Gupta went on to cite specific instances of large-scale fraud, including an allegation that while he was a member of Goldman's Board of Directors, he illicitly passed on information to Mr. Rajaratnam about Berkshire Hathaway's $5 billion investment in Goldman Sachs and Goldman Sachs' upcoming public equity offering before that information was publicly announced on September 23, 2008. The progress towards the climax of the case came even as a federal judge refused to disallow telephone wire taps as evidence presented in court in a second case against Galleon traders.
The high-profile case of Raj Rajaratnam, the hedge fund manager being prosecuted on insider trading charges, has drawn closer to a verdict even as jurors are expected to start finalising their view on his culpability on Monday.
Having entered a not guilty plea, Mr. Rajaratnam's legal team concluded defence arguments this week, building its case around the claim that all the alleged insider trades by Mr. Rajaratnam and his associates at the Galleon hedge fund were only based on publicly available information.
However, prosecutors argued that the most powerful evidence of his guilt was “his own voice,” in a reference to more than 40 secretly recorded phone conversations that he had with other suspects.
One prosecutor, Reed Brodsky, was quoted as saying, “The tapes provided devastating evidence of the defendant's crime in real time... These calls have stripped away the veil of legitimacy.”
In of one of the largest insider-trading cases in recent history, Mr. Rajaratnam was arrested, in October 2009, on 14 charges relating to securities fraud and conspiracy, and allegations that he made $54 million from illicit trades. If he is convicted, he will face up to 25 years in prison, according to sources.
According to reports prosecutors used those wire taps to retrace “the vast and complicated web of informants and traders, giving jurors a step-by-step outline of their case and the evidence supporting it.” Among those implicated through the wire taps and informants was Rajat Gupta, a former Managing Director of consulting giant McKinsey and Company.
The order against Mr. Gupta went on to cite specific instances of large-scale fraud, including an allegation that while he was a member of Goldman's Board of Directors, he illicitly passed on information to Mr. Rajaratnam about Berkshire Hathaway's $5 billion investment in Goldman Sachs and Goldman Sachs' upcoming public equity offering before that information was publicly announced on September 23, 2008. The progress towards the climax of the case came even as a federal judge refused to disallow telephone wire taps as evidence presented in court in a second case against Galleon traders.
Labels: hedge fund probe, Rajaratnam case
# posted by Narayan Lakshman @ 3:26 PM 
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