Trial of Rajaratnam’s brother ends as defence says US case flawed

Wednesday, 9 July 2014 00:26 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Reuters: A lawyer for Rengan Rajaratnam on Monday compared the government’s insider trading case against the younger brother of Galleon Group founder Raj Rajaratnam to a jigsaw puzzle where the pieces had been wrongly jammed together. In closing arguments in New York federal court, Daniel Gitner, Rengan Rajaratnam’s lawyer, told jurors what remained of the case against his client, a former Galleon fund manager, ‘doesn’t fit together’.

In no wiretapped phone call did Raj Rajaratnam tell his brother he was trading on inside information, Gitner said. Nor was there proof Rengan Rajaratnam entered into a conspiracy to engage in insider trading, he said. “They can’t finish the puzzle they are so desperate to finish,” Gitner said. But Randall Jackson, the prosecutor who made the government’s closing argument, said the brothers engaged in ‘obvious criminal activity’ that allowed Rengan Rajaratnam to personally earn $ 40,000 trading on inside information about technology company Advanced Micro Devices Inc in 2008. “He is a coconspirator,” Jackson said. “His brother embraced him.” The case is part of a broad crackdown on insider trading by Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bharara’s office that has resulted in 81 convictions since October 2009. Bharara and some top officials from the office were in the courtroom on Monday.