18 Indians in Raj Rajaratnam insider trial

As a New York federal court started the trial of hedge-fund executive Raj Rajaratnam, 53, on Tuesday, the court disclosed a list of scores of potential witnesses, including 18 executives of Indian origin. Interestingly, one of their prosecutors will be an Indian-origin American — Preet Bharara, a New York attorney.

Rajaratnam, founder of Galleon Group, has been accused of making improper trades based on tips about listed traded firms, allegedly obtained from company insiders and others. The Securities and Exchange Commission, the US markets regulator, wants to quiz 100-odd executives to build a credible case against the Sri-Lankan born billionaire.

They include: Rajat Gupta, who was McKinsey & Co’s global managing director (MD); Anil Kumar, former director at McKinsey and Sanjay Santhanam, MD and head of risk management at Galleon International.