Lawyers for former Goldman Sachs Group Inc Indian-origin director, Mr Rajat Gupta, will get to question the investment bank’s chairman, Mr Lloyd Blankfein, and six others as part of a related civil lawsuit by the Securities & Exchange Commission ahead of Mr Gupta’s criminal trial on insider trading charges in April.
US District Judge, Mr Jed Rakoff, said apart from Mr Blankfein, Mr Ian Horowitz, a former trader who worked for convicted hedge fund billionaire, Mr Raj Rajaratnam, and three other individuals associated with Galleon — Mr Ananth Muniyappa, Mr Brock Vandervliet and Mr Leon Shaulov, can also be deposed in the civil case.
Also to be questioned under oath by the lawyers of the SEC and Mr Gupta is Mr Greg Ormond of Exemplar Wealth.
“The Court sees no material argument whatsoever for delaying the depositions,” of these seven people, Mr Rakoff said in his four-page ruling today adding that the questioning of these people before Mr Gupta’s April criminal trial will give the two sides more time to conduct other discovery for his civil trial which has been set for October 2012.
Mr Gupta has pleaded not guilty to charges filed against him in October by the federal prosecutors that he passed the confidential information he received as a board member of Goldman Sachs and Procter and Gamble to his friend Mr Rajaratnam.
If convicted, he faces up to 105 years in prison. The same day that he was indicted of securities fraud, Mr Gupta was slapped with a civil suit in which SEC said he engaged in an “extensive insider trading scheme” with Mr Rajaratnam.
While his trial in the criminal case has been set for April 9 next year, Mr Gupta’s trial in the civil suit will begin on October 1.
Mr Rakoff said there is no reason why the depositions of Mr Blankfein and the six others cannot take place before April since the government has indicated that it is unlikely to call them as witnesses at the criminal trial and also because they had already testified in Mr Rajaratnam’s trial this year.
Mr Rajaratnam has been sentenced to 11 years on insider trading charges and is set to surrender to prison officials on December 5.
Prosecutors said Mr Rajaratnam made millions of dollars in profits and avoided losses on the basis of information Mr Gupta passed on to him, sometimes calling him within seconds of Goldman and P&G board meetings that he sat on, getting over.
Last week, Mr Gupta’s lawyer MR Gary Naftalis and SEC had each submitted the names of 10 potential witnesses they wanted to question for his civil trial.
Mr Rakoff said the remaining witnesses can be questioned after the criminal trial is concluded by the end of April.