Rajat Gupta, the former Goldman Sachs director and once one of the most respected brains on Wall Street, has the next 20 years of his life in the hands of a retired Manhattan librarian and 11 of her fellow jurors.
The Manhattan federal court jury will begin to decide today if Gupta, the former head of McKinsey & Co., repeatedly called his hedge-fund pal Raj Rajaratnam and leaked confidential information, allowing Gupta and the hedge fund to pocket millions in profits.
The eight-woman, four-man jury will begin deliberations with the ringing summation of defense lawyer Gary Naftalis on their mind.
Naftalis brought 63-year-old Gupta, his family and many of his friends to tears, as he colorfully evoked “human freedom,” the US justice system and protecting against “false witness” during his three-hour closing argument.
Naftalis slammed the evidence, calling it “guesswork and speculation,” and then stressed to the jury the enormous power they have over his client’s life.
“In a few weeks, this case will be a dim memory for you,” Naftalis told the jury. “Whatever you do here will mark whatever future he [Gupta] has left.”
A watery-eyed Gupta hugged Naftalis when he returned to the defense table. Gupta’s wife Anita went to the bathroom to wipe away her tears and his weepy daughters comforted each other in the gallery.
The government countered Naftalis’ claim that the evidence is weak simply because it’s circumstantial, telling the jury that the evidence — circumstantial or not — “shows beyond a reasonable doubt that he tipped Rajaratnam over and over and over again.
“To believe the argument of the defense team, you’d have to believe Mr. Gupta is one of the unluckiest men in the world,” chided Assistant US Attorney Reed Brodsky.
Brodsky, along with fellow prosecutor Richard Tarlowe, walked the jury through seven wiretapped phone conversations, at least 10 e-mails and more than 60 graphs and documents submitted as evidence over the last few weeks in an effort to tie their case together.
The feds went through phone records showing Gupta called Rajaratnam on Sept. 23, 2008, within a minute of getting off a conference call to approve Warren Buffett’s $5 billion investment in Goldman Sachs.
Within 63 seconds of hanging up, one of Raj’s traders placed an order for 100,000 shares of Goldman stock. Sixty-eight seconds after that, Rajaratnam’s partner, Gary Rosenbach, placed another order for 250,000 shares.
The trial, before Judge Jed Rakoff, lasted three weeks. Gupta is the largest fish to be enmeshed in US Attorney Preet Bharara’s insider-trading net.