Rajat Gupta "real fly" on Goldman Sachs wall: govt lawyer

Betwa Sharma
New York, Apr 21 (PTI) During closing arguments in the
largest hedge fund trading case in US history, a government
lawyer has described former Goldman Sachs Inc director Rajat
Gupta as the "real fly" on the wall of the firm's boardroom.
Gupta, who has not been indicted in the criminal trial of
Galleon Group founder Raj Rajaratnam, faces civil charges from
the Securities and Exchange Commission for allegedly passing
confidential information about Goldman Sachs to the defendant.
The defence had previously argued that Rajaratnam traded
on Goldman Sachs based on information available in the public
outlets like theflyonthewall.com, which provide financial
news.
"You don't trade based upon a flyonthewall report,"
Assistant US Attorney Reed Brodsky told the jury on Wednesday.
"You trade based upon the real fly on the wall, Mr Gupta,
the person who is in the Goldman board room, who knows what
Goldman is really going to do," he added.
Gupta, an Indian-American, who was perched at the top of
the financial world, has fallen from grace after the
accusations levied against him.
Besides Goldman Sachs, he sat on the board of Proctor &
Gamble and was invited to President Barack Obama's first state
dinner hosted in honour of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
"Having a great reputation doesn't give you a free pass
to violate the law," said Brodsky. "No-one is above the law."
Rajaratnam, 53, who has been charged with 14 counts of