NEW YORK, May 11 (UPI) -- A federal jury in New York Wednesday declared hedge fund manager Raj Rajaratnam guilty on 14 counts connected with an insider trading scheme.
Rajaratnam is the founder of the Galleon Group hedge fund. To make their case, Manhattan prosecutors used as many as 45 tapes of phone calls in a two-week trial, some of them calls to prominent Wall Street executives, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Prosecutors said the hedge fund gained an advantage of $63.8 million from the insider trading scheme through either ill-gotten earnings or the prevention of losses as the fund adjusted its position based on confidential information.
During the trial, Goldman Sachs Chief Executive Officer Lloyd Blankfein told jurors that a respected board member at the bank, Rajat Gupta, had shared company information with Rajaratnam.
Gupta has not been charged with a crime. Rajaratnam, however, faces up to 20 years in prison on each securities fraud conviction and five years for each conspiracy conviction, the Journal said.
