NEW YORK (AP) — With their client opting not to testify, lawyers for a former Goldman Sachs board member called his adult daughter and other supporters to vouch for his character Monday at his Manhattan insider trading trial.
The eldest child of Rajat Gupta was on the witness stand only a few minutes before the trial ended for the day.
Geetanjali Gupta, 33, was to resume testifying Tuesday as one of the last witnesses in the closely watched white-collar case. Closing arguments are set for Wednesday.
Gupta, 63, has pleaded not guilty to charges he conspired to reveal board secrets that enabled his friend and former billionaire Raj Rajaratnam to make lucrative trades for Rajaratnam’s $7 billion hedge fund. Rajaratnam was convicted of insider trading charges at trial last year and is serving an 11-year prison sentence.
The government has presented phone records and other evidence it says shows Gupta gave Rajaratnam an illegal trading edge by revealing to him that Goldman was going to receive a $5 billion investment from Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway. Another time, Gupta gave Rajaratnam an inside tip that Goldman was going to surprise analysts and investors by reporting its first loss, prosecutors said.
An attorney had told the judge on Friday that Gupta was “highly likely” to testify in his defense this week. But the lawyer later said they decided “after substantial reflection and consideration” that Gupta would not testify.
On Monday, another defense witness, Suprotik Basu, told jurors that Gupta had worked tirelessly to combat the spread of malaria. He testified that Gupta had become a mentor to him after Gupta joined him on trips to Africa in Basu’s role as director of U.N. secretary general’s special envoy for malaria.
Basu called Gupta “one of the most honest, forthright, genuine and giving people I know.”
