Lawyers for former Goldman Sachs Group Inc board member
Rajat Gupta on Wednesday tried to use phone records to sow doubt at his
insider-trading trial about contact with now-imprisoned hedge fund founder Raj
Rajaratnam, Reuters reports.
Gupta, 63, a onetime global head of McKinsey & Co
management consultancy, is charged with securities fraud and conspiracy in U.S.
District Court in New York over allegations he leaked boardroom secrets to
Rajaratnam and his Galleon Group between March 2007 and January 2009.
Phone records introduced to the jury by prosecutors showed
that Gupta's phone and Rajaratnam's phone connecting numerous times in 2007 and
2008. A Goldman employee, Joe Yanigisawa, verified the records but was then
asked by a defense lawyer about certain telephone connections between the
Galleon office and another number assigned to Goldman Sachs employee David Loeb
in New York.
He confirmed numerous calls between Loeb and Rajaratnam or
one of his traders, Adam Smith, on the sheets of phone numbers. A main defense
argument is that Rajaratnam had sources other than Gupta to provide him
confidential company information. Smith has pleaded guilty in the case.
Rajaratnam was convicted at trial a year ago….
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