Rajat Gupta, former director of Goldman Sachs is likely to face “expanded charges” of insider trading even as his lawyers claimed that the US government allegations were merely “mumbo jumbo”.
During a pre-trial hearing in the federal district court in Manhattan on Thursday, the government said it is likely to bring slightly revised and expanded charges in a superseding indictment against Mr Gupta by the end of January.
“A final decision has not been made, but more likely than not there will be a superseding indictment,” assistant US attorney Richard Tarlowe told the judge during the hearing that lasted for over an hour and which Mr Gupta attended.
Mr Gupta, who sat on the boards of Procter & Gamble and Goldman Sachs, is accused of divulging confidential details about those companies to his friend Raj Rajaratnam, the convicted former hedge fund manager now serving an 11-year jail term.
In the indictment filed in 2010, the government had said Mr Gupta “provided inside information to Rajaratnam because of his friendship and business relationships with Rajaratnam. Gupta benefited and hoped to benefit from his friendship and business relationships with Rajaratnam in various ways, some of which were financial”.