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.
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