'Rajat Gupta became the illegal eyes for his friend'

Attorney Preet Bharara said Rajat Gupta broke the trust of some of US's top public companies and "became the illegal eyes and ears in the boardroom for his friend and business associate, Raj Rajaratnam, who reaped enormous profits from Mr. Gupta's breach of duty."

"As alleged, he broke that trust and instead became the illegal eyes and ears in the boardroom for his friend and business associate, Raj Rajaratnam, who reaped enormous profits from Gupta's breach of duty," Bharara said.

[caption id="attachment_117529" align="alignleft" width="380" caption="Rajat Gupta exits federal court in New York, Oct. 26, 2011. John Marshall Mantel/The New York Times"][/caption]

A total of 56 people have been charged in insider trading cases since Bharara, an Indian-American assumed office shortly before Rajaratanam's October 2009 arrest.

FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge Janice Fedarcyk said Gupta's arrest was the latest under an initiative launched by the FBI in 2007 against hedge fund cheats.

"The conduct alleged is not an inadvertent slip of the tongue by Mr. Gupta," she said. "His eagerness to pass along inside information to Rajaratnam is nowhere more starkly evident than in the two instances where a total of 39 seconds elapsed between his learning of crucial Goldman Sachs information and lavishing it on his good friend."

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