America's biggest insider trading case that has rocked Wall Street has pitted one Indian-American against the other, in which New York's top federal prosecutor Preet Bharara will use every legal weapon to nail corporate America's poster boy Rajat Gupta and others.
Bharara, the US attorney for the Southern District of New York, did not mince words when he said in the charges filed against Gupta, 62, that the top Wall Street executive was 'entrusted' by some of the premier institutions of American business to sit inside their boardrooms, among their executives and directors, and receive their confidential information so that he could give advice and counsel for the benefit of their shareholders.
"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, 43,
Kolkata-born Gupta has pleaded not guilty to the charges and a trial has been set for April next year, setting the stage for a courtroom showdown between the two India-born and Harvard educated US citizens who are prominent figures in the South Asian community in New York.
For Gupta, it has been a stunning fall from grace as the securities fraud charges were announced against him on October 26, a day when the Indian festival of lights Diwali was being celebrated across the world.
It comes as an irony that Diwali, the day Gupta was arraigned in court on charges brought by Bharara's office, is celebrated to mark the triumph of good over evil.
Ferozepur-born Bharara, nominated to become US Attorney by President Barack Obama on May 15, 2009, has led a widespread crackdown on insider trading on Wall Street.
As a prosecutor in the Southern District, he has prosecuted organised crime, narcotics and securities fraud.
