Jailed hedge-fund manager Rajaratnam's VIP list included ex-Goldman Sachs director Gupta's name

New York, May 23 (ANI): A former assistant of jailed hedge-fund manager Raj Rajaratnam has said in his testimony against ex- Goldman Sachs Director Rajat Gupta , that Rajaratnam had kept a VIP list of people, which included the name of the Indian American businessman, who has been put to trial by a Manhattan court.

The assistant, Carlyn Eisenberg, told a Manhattan federal court jury that Gupta, was among the few names on the list.

Gupta, 63, has been accused of insider-trading charges that helped Rajaratnam, who was his friend.

Hedge-fund big-wig Stan Druckenmiller and Danielle Chiesi, the teen beauty queen turned trader, who earlier pleaded guilty in the case against Rajaratnam, also appears on the VIP list.

According to the New York Post, Gupta, a former McKinsey and Co. head, is accused of tipping Galleon Group founder Rajaratnam to confidential information he gained as a director for Goldman and Procter and Gamble.

Eisenberg testified that a man whose voice she recognized as being on the list caused a flurry of activity when he dialed Rajaratnam's office late one day in September 2008.

The call, which phone records later showed came from Gupta's McKinsey office, arrived roughly 10 minutes before the close of markets on Sept. 23, Eisenberg claimed.

Later that day,when Goldman announced its board had just approved a $5 billion investment from billionaire investor Warren Buffett during the depths of the financial crisis, Gupta reportedly was on the call when the board approved the Buffett deal.

However, Eisenberg didn't identify the caller as Gupta and revealed that she wouldn't recognize his voice if she heard it today, but she said she recognized the voice at the time and knew the caller was on the approved list. (ANI)