NEW YORK-Extensive wiretap evidence in the biggest hedge fund insider trading case in history proves a Wall Street heavyweight routinely used a cadre of "corporate spies" to get secrets and earn tens of millions of dollars in illicit revenue, a prosecutor said in his closing argument yesterday. When the jury listened to FBI recordings of Raj Rajaratnam, "You heard the defendant commit his crimes time and time again in his own words," Assistant US Attorney Reed Brodsky told the panel. "The tapes were devastating evidence of the defendant's crimes, in real time."
The jury head more than 45 audio recordings during seven weeks of testimony; authorities have called it the broadest use of wiretaps ever in a white collar case. The government also relied on the testimony of a parade of cooperators who were allegedly corrupted by Rajaratnam, including a disgraced technology industry executive and analysts. Prosecutors also implicated a former Goldman Sachs board member as one of the tipsters, in part by calling Goldman chairman Lloyd Blankfein to testify the tapes showed that the board member violated confidentiality policies. Authorities have said Rajaratnam earned at least $68 million from illegal tips. (Rueters)