“Much of the evidence brought against Gupta was circumstantial, and legal experts said they were surprised at the speed of the jury’s verdict.
John Coffee, Adolf A Berle professor of law at Columbia law school, said: “Even in the Rajaratnam case where there was more of a ‘smoking gun’ the jury took 12 days,” he said.
Coffee said Gupta’s legal team had mounted an “impressive” defence against a case that he said many prosecutors would have been reluctant to bring.
The prosecution never accused Gupta of personally trading on inside information but argued he benefited from his stake in Voyager, an investment firm he set up with Rajaratnam which invested in Galleon funds. The defense argued that there was no evidence that Gupta profited, or traded on, any alleged tip and said Gupta had considered suing Rajaratnam over Voyager, which failed.
Rajaratnam was caught on dozens of wiretaps discussing inside information and trades he had made, but the evidence against Gupta was far less compelling. The prosecution offered only one substantive conversation between the two men, and Rajaratna.”