New York: Evidence of insider trading against businessman Rajat Gupta is “overwhelming,” a prosecutor told jurors at the trial’s close on June 13, while a defense lawyer countered that the government had a weak, circumstantial case without direct proof.
Jurors were expected to begin deliberating the charges against Gupta, a former Goldman Sachs Group Inc board member, later on June 13 in one of the US government’s biggest insider-trading prosecutions in recent years.
Prosecutors said in closing arguments that Gupta had brazenly and illegally passed stock tips to now-imprisoned hedge fund manager Raj Rajaratnam, but the defense argued that the government “had no real, hard, direct evidence” to prove it.
“Where is the beef in this case?” defense lawyer Gary Naftalis asked the Manhattan federal court jury. “We have had no real first-hand knowledge of the crimes alleged to have been committed here.”
Gupta faces a maximum prison sentence of 25 years if convicted on the charges of securities fraud and conspiracy.
