The prosecution in the trial of Rajat Gupta might have saved
its best for last.
The trial has been called boring and tedious -- even the
presiding judge has said as much. But then FBI agent James Barnacle, a former
financial advisor, took the stand and connected all the dots from the
prosecution point of view.
Under questioning, he walked the jury through the phone
evidence, showing the close contact in which Gupta stayed with the convicted
insider trading hedge fund manager Raj Rajaratnam. During a nine-month period,
the two logged more than 150 calls. Some of those calls closely coincided with
key Goldman Sachs events. After some calls, Galleon made large trades in either
Goldman Sachs or P&G.
Only one call between Gupta and Rajaratnam was recorded by
federal agents. In that call, Gupta told the hedge fund manager that the
Goldman Sachs board was considering buying a commercial bank. No trades flowed
from that conversation. One call in
particular is eye-catching. According to DealBook, phone records showed that on
March 12, 2007, a Goldman board audit committee call was scheduled. It was to
last about 15 minutes and offer a preview to the directors of the earnings
announcement that would be released the next day….
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