Source: The Times of India, May 23, 2012
Rajat Gupta, who was a director at Goldman Sachs Group, “threw away his duties” to the company when he tipped hedge-fund co-founder Raj Rajaratnam to news that the bank would get a $5-billion investment, a prosecutor told jurors. At the start of Gupta’s insider-trading trial, assistant US attorney Reed Brodsky told jurors that Gupta broke the law when, immediately after a Goldman Sachs board meeting on September 23, 2008, he informed Rajaratnam that Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway would invest $5 billion in the firm. Rajaratnam, Gupta’s friend and cofounder of Galleon Group, traded on the tip, Brodsky said.
In the defense opening on Monday in Manhattan federal court, attorney Gary Naftalis told jurors that Gupta was “innocent of the allegations” and said that the government has the “wrong man on trial”.
Brodsky said, “Gupta threw away his duties, he threw away his responsibilities, and he broke the law at the time the company was in crisis. He used those secrets to help his friend, and Raj Rajaratnam sold his Goldman stock and made nearly a million dollars from Gupta’s tip.”
Naftalis said of his client that “it defies common sense that in the twilight of an illustrious life, he’d decide knowingly, willfully and deliberately to suddenly become a criminal and do it for no benefit.”
The lawyer said even if there is evidence of leaks from Goldman Sachs, the tips didn’t come from Gupta.
“There may be a crime her but Rajat Gupta had nothing to do with it,” he said. “You’ve got the wrong man on trial here. The evidence will show that Raj Rajaratnam had sources all Gamble (P&G) board.
The US alleges he passed insider tips to Rajaratnam in a conspiracy that lasted from 2007 to January 2009. Rajaratnam is serving an 11-year sentence for insider trading. Prosecutors say Gupta, 63, gave Rajaratnam material, nonpublic information about New York-based Goldman Sachs and Cincinnati-based P&G, the world’s largest consumer-products company.
FROM BOARDROOM TO COURTROOM WHAT IS HE ACCUSED OF?
Passing on information to Galleon hedge fund founder Rajaratnam about Warren Buffett-led Berkshire Hathaway’s $5bn investment in Goldman Sachs after attending a Goldman board meeting on Sept 23, 2008
Passing details of Goldman’s earnings in Q1 of 2007 and Q4 of 2008
Giving secret info about P&G’s 2008 sale of its Folgers Coffee unit to J M Smucker
The leaks are said have helped generate millions of dollars in profits for Galleon
THE CHARGES Gupta is charged with one count of conspiracy and five counts of securities fraud, which carries a maximum 20-year prison sentence
THE EVIDENCE Wiretaps of Gupta’s conversations with Rajaratnam, which ultimately nailed the Galleon founder who has been sentenced to 20 years in prison
FATE IN HANDS OF 12 The prosecution and the defence has settled on a jury of four men and eight women, which includes a freelance beauty consultant, a fourth-grade teacher and a psychiatric nurse, a marketing manager, an executive at a nonprofit and a physician’s assistant over town, he had other sources at Goldman Sachs.” Gupta, who ran consulting firm McKinsey & Co from 1994 to 2003, also sat on the Procter &
Indian origin woman guilty in insider trading case
Washington: A former Yahoo executive and an Indian-American hedge fund manager have pleaded guilty to insider trading charges that involved exchanging confidential information on a deal between Yahoo and Microsoft for personal gains.
US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Monday alleged that Robert W Kwok, who was then a Yahoo’s senior director of business management, told Indian-American Reema D Shah in July 2009 that a deal between Yahoo and Microsoft would be announced soon. Based on Kwok’s illegal tip, Shah prompted the mutual funds she managed to buy more than 700,000 shares of Yahoo stock that were later sold for profits of approximately $389,000, SEC alleged. The SEC further alleged that a year earlier, the roles were reversed.
Shah, 40, tipped Kwok with material non-public information about an impending acquisition announcement between two other companies. Kwok traded in a personal account based on the confidential information for profits of $4,754. Kwok and Shah, who live in California, have agreed to settle the SEC’s charges.
Rajat Gupta, who was a director at Goldman Sachs Group, “threw away his duties” to the company when he tipped hedge-fund co-founder Raj Rajaratnam to news that the bank would get a $5-billion investment, a prosecutor told jurors. At the start of Gupta’s insider-trading trial, assistant US attorney Reed Brodsky told jurors that Gupta broke the law when, immediately after a Goldman Sachs board meeting on September 23, 2008, he informed Rajaratnam that Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway would invest $5 billion in the firm. Rajaratnam, Gupta’s friend and cofounder of Galleon Group, traded on the tip, Brodsky said.
In the defense opening on Monday in Manhattan federal court, attorney Gary Naftalis told jurors that Gupta was “innocent of the allegations” and said that the government has the “wrong man on trial”.
Brodsky said, “Gupta threw away his duties, he threw away his responsibilities, and he broke the law at the time the company was in crisis. He used those secrets to help his friend, and Raj Rajaratnam sold his Goldman stock and made nearly a million dollars from Gupta’s tip.”
Naftalis said of his client that “it defies common sense that in the twilight of an illustrious life, he’d decide knowingly, willfully and deliberately to suddenly become a criminal and do it for no benefit.”
The lawyer said even if there is evidence of leaks from Goldman Sachs, the tips didn’t come from Gupta.
“There may be a crime her but Rajat Gupta had nothing to do with it,” he said. “You’ve got the wrong man on trial here. The evidence will show that Raj Rajaratnam had sources all Gamble (P&G) board.
The US alleges he passed insider tips to Rajaratnam in a conspiracy that lasted from 2007 to January 2009. Rajaratnam is serving an 11-year sentence for insider trading. Prosecutors say Gupta, 63, gave Rajaratnam material, nonpublic information about New York-based Goldman Sachs and Cincinnati-based P&G, the world’s largest consumer-products company.
FROM BOARDROOM TO COURTROOM WHAT IS HE ACCUSED OF?
Passing on information to Galleon hedge fund founder Rajaratnam about Warren Buffett-led Berkshire Hathaway’s $5bn investment in Goldman Sachs after attending a Goldman board meeting on Sept 23, 2008
Passing details of Goldman’s earnings in Q1 of 2007 and Q4 of 2008
Giving secret info about P&G’s 2008 sale of its Folgers Coffee unit to J M Smucker
The leaks are said have helped generate millions of dollars in profits for Galleon
THE CHARGES Gupta is charged with one count of conspiracy and five counts of securities fraud, which carries a maximum 20-year prison sentence
THE EVIDENCE Wiretaps of Gupta’s conversations with Rajaratnam, which ultimately nailed the Galleon founder who has been sentenced to 20 years in prison
FATE IN HANDS OF 12 The prosecution and the defence has settled on a jury of four men and eight women, which includes a freelance beauty consultant, a fourth-grade teacher and a psychiatric nurse, a marketing manager, an executive at a nonprofit and a physician’s assistant over town, he had other sources at Goldman Sachs.” Gupta, who ran consulting firm McKinsey & Co from 1994 to 2003, also sat on the Procter &
Indian origin woman guilty in insider trading case
Washington: A former Yahoo executive and an Indian-American hedge fund manager have pleaded guilty to insider trading charges that involved exchanging confidential information on a deal between Yahoo and Microsoft for personal gains.
US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Monday alleged that Robert W Kwok, who was then a Yahoo’s senior director of business management, told Indian-American Reema D Shah in July 2009 that a deal between Yahoo and Microsoft would be announced soon. Based on Kwok’s illegal tip, Shah prompted the mutual funds she managed to buy more than 700,000 shares of Yahoo stock that were later sold for profits of approximately $389,000, SEC alleged. The SEC further alleged that a year earlier, the roles were reversed.
Shah, 40, tipped Kwok with material non-public information about an impending acquisition announcement between two other companies. Kwok traded in a personal account based on the confidential information for profits of $4,754. Kwok and Shah, who live in California, have agreed to settle the SEC’s charges.
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