Rajaratnam jury told of Intel deal leaks (Reuters)

Tuesday, March 22, 2011 12:01 PM By dwi

NEW YORK (Reuters) – An Intel Corp (INTC.O) executive testified that private info most a big wireless meshwork dealings were leaked before the declaration of the deal, a key dealings in inclose money founder's Raj Rajaratnam insider trading case.

Much of Tuesday's evidence in borough federal court convergent on Rajiv Goel, a past Intel executive and friend of Rajaratnam's who pleaded blameable to securities humbug and band in February 2010.

Prosecutors argued that Rajaratnam, who is on effort on charges of trading on extramarital stock tips, bought 125,800 Clearwire Corp shares based on exclusive information.

They contend that his March 24, 2008, acquire came two life before programme reports of a possible 4G WiMax stake between Clearwire and Sprint Nextel Corp (S.N), including $1 billion of top from Intel. The stake was announced on May 7, 2008.

In his ordinal day of testimony, Intel Vice President Sriram Viswanathan said Goel would not hit been allowed to handle info of a possible Sprint-Clearwire partnership, including top commitments from Intel, Comcast Corp (CMCSA.O) and Google Inc. (GOOG.O)

Viswanathan also said Goel also would not hit been authorized to divulge that Intel had held a commission gathering on the matter. Those info were disclosed to the jury through sound taps of conversations between Rajaratnam and Goel.

"Leaks are essentially not arable to some business discussions, because they attain the possibility of anything getting finished that such riskier," Viswanathan said.

Goel has admitted he tipped Rajaratnam most the Clearwire transaction, and most Intel's quarterly earnings the preceding April. He began testifying for the continuation on Tuesday afternoon.

Rajaratnam, 53, is the most striking litigator in the largest U.S. inclose money insider trading housing in history. Prosecutors accused him of illegally making $45 meg based on tips from corporate insiders.

The one-time billionaire has denied wrongdoing, and said his trades were based on his own investigate and publically acquirable information. He faces up to 20 eld in situation if guilty of securities fraud.

Twenty-six grouping hit been live in the probe, and 19, including Goel, hit pleaded guilty.

In his testimony, Viswanathan told jurors that Goel would hit been "spontaneously" fired had he been caught leaking material, exclusive information to Rajaratnam.

"You would get fired on the spot," he said.

Viswanathan early told accumulation lawyer playwright Lynam on interbreed communicating that exclusive information that Intel executives had most the Clearwire-Sprint stake was more reliable than the "speculation" set forward in analyst investigate and programme reports that Rajaratnam strength otherwise hit had at the time.

"It would be astonishing to me" for analysts to hit over at the instance that Intel was near a big investment, and not merely sworn to WiMax technology, Viswanathan said.

The housing is U.S. v Rajaratnam et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 09-01184.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York, redaction by Gospels Lewis)


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