[Assam] [assam] Insider Trading: Rajat gupta faces trial today

[bhuban.baruah]

Times of India (May 21, 2012)


NEW YORK: Barely a day went by at the insider-trading trial of 
multimillionaire hedge-fund founder Raj Rajaratnam a year ago without 
mention of Rajat Gupta, a boldface name in business and charity circles.

On Monday in the same federal court in New York, it will be Gupta's 
turn to go on trial. The former Goldman Sachs Group Inc and Procter & 
Gamble board member is accused of leaking stock secrets to Rajaratnam, 
his erstwhile friend and business associate who was convicted and is 
now in prison.

But while prosecutors have called Gupta the "illegal eyes and ears" for 
Rajaratnam, this is a very different case. At Rajaratnam's trial, 
jurors spent weeks listening to the Galleon Group founder discussing 
stock trades on calls secretly recorded by the FBI. With Gupta, 
prosecutors have no direct conversations on tape related to the trades 
central to their case.

One of the government's core allegations is that Gupta tipped 
Rajaratnam to Berkshire Hathaway Inc's $5 billion investment in Goldman 
during the 2008 financial crisis and Goldman's surprise fourth-quarter 
loss that year.

Gupta, 63, has pleaded not guilty. His lawyers have argued that others 
may have leaked information about Goldman to Galleon and that Gupta, 
who once led management consultant McKinsey & Co, had no reason to 
illegally spill corporate secrets.