Galleon insider dealing trial nears end

Prosecutors have been summing up their case in the major insider dealing trial which centres on hedge fund billionaire Raj Rajaratnam.

They said he took advantage of friends and employees to make millions of dollars illegally from insider trading.

The defence, which will be summing up later, say the alleged insider tips were common knowledge.

Mr Rajaratnam was charged with 14 counts of securities fraud and conspiracy and denies all charges.

The founder of the Galleon Group hedge fund faces as much as 25 years in prison if convicted.

He is accused of making as much as $63.8m (£39m) of illegal profit from 2003 to March 2009 by trading on tips from a network of highly-placed corporate insiders.

The Assistant US Attorney, Reed Brodsky, told the jury in his closing argument on Wednesday: "The defendant knew tomorrow's news today, and that meant big money."

He added that the defendant tried to "conquer the stock market at the expense of the law", and that there was "overwhelming" evidence of his guilt.

The court has heard dozens of secretly recorded phone calls.

Mr Rajaratnam, who is 53, is the central figure in a sweeping US government probe of insider trading at hedge funds, and the only defendant so far to go on trial.

Later on Wednesday, his defence lawyer will begin his closing arguments.

The jury, sitting in a New York court, could start their deliberations as early as Thursday.

In his summation, Mr Brodsky focused on testimony of Anil Kumar, a former McKinsey & Co partner who said Rajaratnam paid him $1.75m to provide tips.

A former Intel executive, Rajiv Goel, also gave testimony saying that he passed company information to Mr Rajaratnam in the biggest Wall Street insider-trading trial in decades.

Prosecutors have called the case the "largest hedge fund insider trading case in history".

So far more than two dozen people have been criminally or civilly charged in the case. Most of them have pleaded guilty.