Former Goldman Sachs director Rajat Gupta "threw away his duties" by divulging bank secrets to hedge fund manager Raj Rajaratnam, a US prosecutor said at the start of Gupta's insider-trading trial on Monday.
The defense punched back that the government had no direct evidence.
Gupta, 63, once a boldface name in business and charity circles, is the most prominent corporate executive charged in a US government crackdown on insider trading in recent years. Galleon Group founder Rajaratnam, an erstwhile friend and business associate of Gupta, was convicted of insider trading a year ago and is serving an 11-year prison term.
Gesturing with his left arm toward Gupta in a Manhattan federal courtroom, prosecutor Reed Brodsky said the case "is about this man" and "how he violated his duties and abused his position as a corporate insider."
During his turn at the podium, Gupta's lawyer Gary Naftalis painted a very different picture of Gupta, who was born in India and attended Harvard Business School before heading to McKinsey & Co management consultancy.
Naftalis repeatedly told the jury that there was "no real, hard, direct evidence" against him despite 10 months of FBI wiretaps on Rajaratnam's phones in 2008 and 2009.
{{/usCountry}}Naftalis repeatedly told the jury that there was "no real, hard, direct evidence" against him despite 10 months of FBI wiretaps on Rajaratnam's phones in 2008 and 2009.
{{/usCountry}}"Rajaratnam had sources all over town giving him information. He even had sources at Goldman Sachs," Naftalis told the 12-member jury.
The trial is expected to last three to four weeks.
Goldman will play a key role at the trial. One of the government's core allegations is that Gupta tipped Rajaratnam to a $5 billion investment by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc in Goldman during the 2008 financial crisis and Goldman's surprise fourth-quarter loss that year.