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Friday, May 18, 2012

The Boldface Names on the Witness List for Gupta’s Trial

May 17, 2012, 12:42 pm


Scott Eells/Bloomberg News

The trial of Rajat Gupta, a former Goldman Sachs director, is scheduled to start on Monday.
The potential witness list has been released for the insider trading trial of Rajat K. Gupta, the former director for Goldman Sachs and Procter & Gamble, and as expected, it is chock full of boldfaced names.

Possible witnesses who could be called to testify — or whose names may come up during the trial — include Lloyd C. Blankfein, the chief executive of Goldman; Gary D. Cohn, the bank’s president; A.G. Lafley, the former chief executive of Procter & Gamble; and Kenneth I. Chenault, the chief executive of American Express.

The trial of Mr. Gupta, the former global head of the consulting firm McKinsey & Company, is scheduled to start on Monday. He is charged with leaking boardroom secrets to his friend and business associate Raj Rajaratnam, who was convicted last year and is serving an 11-year prison sentence.

Goldman is expected to be on center stage during the trial. The government says Mr. Gupta told Mr. Rajaratnam confidential details about Goldman Sachs before announcements were made public, including news of Warren E. Buffett‘s $5 billion investment in the bank at the depths of the financial crisis.

Byron Trott, the former Goldman banker who oversaw the Buffett investment, is a possible witness. Other Goldman executives who may be called to testify are David A. Viniar, the chief financial officer, and Stephen R. Pierce, the head of the bank’s capital markets business. Even one of Goldman’s outside lawyers, Steven Peikin of Sullivan & Cromwell, is on the list.

The government is likely to ask Mr. Trott about the timing of the Buffett investment and how quickly it came together. He also may be asked about how many people knew about it, including the Goldman board.

Mr. Pierce is expected to discuss a secondary stock offering of Goldman stock that Mr. Gupta is accused of passing along to Mr. Rajaratnam.

At a pretrial hearing on Wednesday, the government said that its first witness was expected to be Caryn Eisenberg, Mr. Rajaratnam’s secretary at his Galleon Group hedge fund. She is likely to testify about how frequently Mr. Gupta and Mr. Rajaratnam spoke to each other, according to people briefed on the case.
Witness List for Rajat K. Gupta Trial

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