In its closing arguments in the largest hedge fund insider trading case in US history, the defence today accused the Government of forcing its witnesses to lie in the trial of Galleon Group founder Raj Rajaratnam, who is the main accused.
Defence lawyer Mr John Dowd said that the Government had threatened to break up the family of Mr Adam Smith, a Galleon Group employee, who testified against Mr Rajaratnam.
Mr Dowd described their “pre-package testimony” as “unreliable and worthless” that “fell apart on cross examination’’.
The defence argued that Mr Rajaratnam had traded on the information that was already in the public domain.
He told the jury members that if the content of the alleged tips were public they “must acquit.” The defence is expected to wrap up its closing arguments today.
Mr Rajaratnam, 53, who has been charged with 14 counts of securities fraud and conspiracy, denies wrongdoing. If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison. Out of the 26 people arrested in the case, 19 have pleaded guilty.
Mr Dowd also blasted the prosecution for suggesting that a key defence witness, former Chief Operating Officer of Galleon Group Mr Rick Schutte, had been influenced by the $25 million that Mr Rajaratnam and family invested in his hedge fund.
“That’s absurd and it should offend you,” said.
Mr Dowd also slammed key government witness Mr Anil Kumar for being “dishonest” about faking documents for his domestic help Mr Manju Das in whose name he opened an account in Galleon’s Buccaneer’s Offshore Ltd where payments for alleged tips eventually landed.
“Anil Kumar might be the most dishonest person in the world,” he said. “He got his cronies in India to get a bunch of fake documents.”
The lawyer said Mr Kumar “giggled his way through the testimony’’.
In his closing argument, the US Assistant Attorney, Mr Reed Brodsky, said that there was “overwhelming evidence that the defendant is guilty of conspiring with others at Galleon of trading on insider information’’.
The government lawyer recapped the instances that Mr Rajaratnam allegedly received confidential information including on Goldman Sachs Inc, Google Inc, Hotel Groups, Akamai Technologies and acquisition by Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), a computer chip-maker of its rival ATI Technologies.
Mr Brodsky said that the defence would call Government witnesses as liars because they had offered, “devastating proof of defendant’s guilt’’.