New York: After six weeks of presenting
evidence, the prosecution and the defence will on Wednesday make
closing arguments in the trial of Galleon Group founder Raj
Rajaratnam`s case.
Rajaratnam, the main accused in the largest hedge fund
insider trading case in US history, is accused of making USD
63.8 million illicitly from confidential information.
The defence lawyers, who have argued that Rajaratnam
traded on publicly available information and not on insider
tips, presented the jury with analyst reports and press
clippings that similar content as the alleged tips.
The prosecution has played secretly recorded phone
conversations between Rajaratnam and his alleged sources
discussing plans and earnings of different companies and
banks.
Rajaratnam, 53, who has been charged with 14 counts of
securities fraud and conspiracy, denies wrongdoing.
If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prisons. Out
of the 26 people arrested in the case, 19 have pleaded guilty.
Rajaratnam did not take the stand in his own defense
at the trial.
Two Indian-Americans, Anil Kumar, a former director
McKinsey & Co, and Rajiv Goel, a former executive at Intel
Inc., have pleaded guilty and they testified against
Rajaratnam.
Kumar told the jury that he provided confidential
information to Rajaratnam on a "super-confidential" deal
involving the acquisition of ATI Technologies Inc., a graphic
design company, by Advanced Micro Devices Inc.(AMD), a
microchip-processing company.
The prosecution played a recording in which Goel told
Rajaratnam that Intel was planning to make a USD 1 billion
investment in a new joint venture with Clearwire and others to
develop an ultra-fast wireless Internet service.
A third Indian-American, Rajat Gupta, has not been
charged in the criminal case but faces civil charges from the
Securities and Exchange Commission for passing confidential
information to Rajaratnam.
PTI
