Galleon hedge fund founder Raj Rajaratnam leaves Manhattan Federal Court in New York, April 27, 2011.
Credit: Reuters/Mark DyeBy Carlyn Kolker and Jonathan StampNEW YORK | Fri 29 april 2011 2: 16 pm EDT
NEW YORK (Reuters)-the jury in Raj Rajaratnam of knowledge process completed a fifth day of deliberations without reaching a verdict on Friday, mirroring of the jurors have spent time in other high-profile, complex cases, white collar.
"This is probably a sign of a very good and well thought-out jury," said Robert Weisberg, a professor at the University of Stanford on the deliberations in the Galleon group hedge fund founder of the test. "Very good juries, in complicated cases, take."
Prosecutors have accused the Sri Lankan-born Rajaratnam, 53, of harvesting as much as $ 63.8 million by illegally trading on inside tips on such companies as chip maker Advanced Micro Devices Inc. and Wall Street Goldman Sachs Group Inc. If convicted, he could face up to 25 years in prison.
A conviction would likely lead to more use of secretly recorded telephone conversations in federal prosecutions. An acquittal would be a huge blow to the u.s. Department of Justice, which investigation into suspected insider trading has made a priority.
Several other prominent white-collar crime trials have longer deliberations.
Jurors needed 11 days in 2005 to condemn two former Tyco International Ltd officers, Chief Executive Dennis Kozlowski and Chief Financial Officer Mark Swartz, the looting of the company. An earlier prosecution ended in a perpetrator.
Onetime WorldCom Inc chief Bernard Lehmann waited eight days in the winter of 2005 before being convicted on charges of securities fraud and inflating the phone company statements.
Former Enron Corp chiefs Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling waited six days before the in 2006 for their role in one of corporate America's most spectacular implosions is convicted.
And jury members 21 days more than six weeks in 2005 to former HealthSouth Corp. chief Richard Scrushy of accounting fraud. He was later convicted in a separate process.
Some deliberations take less time. A jury lasted three days in 2004 to find that Martha Stewart, founder of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Justice had hindered.
NOT A SLAM DUNK?
In the Rajaratnam trial in Manhattan Federal Court, the jury asked for exhibitions or audio replays of phone taps on Tuesday and Wednesday. Not since has requests to evidence related. Deliberations will resume on Monday.
Jury members are locked in a room adjacent to the courtroom of U.s. District Judge Richard Holwell. They have arisen twice to listen to replays of 15 telephone taps. Other than that, they were seen in the courtroom only tell the judge at the end of each session that they were still deliberating.
"The longer it goes, the less of a slam dunk the prosecution," said Cornelius Hurley, a Professor of the University of Boston. "It makes it easier, the wiretaps. You have the exact words, concurrent of the defendant. "
Essentially revolves around the judgment or the Government has convinced members of the jury beyond reasonable doubt that Rajaratnam traded on material nonpublic information from people who had not the duty, and knew it was wrong.
"They could weigh the idea presented by the defence that Rajaratnam of investing strategy based on numerous pieces of information from various sources and not use material nonpublic information," said Bennett Gershman, a professor at Pace University in New York.
Jurors began deliberations on Monday, after seven weeks of often complex evidence. They are trying to reach unanimity on nine counts of securities fraud and five counts of conspiracy.
Gershman said jury deliberations in the Rajaratnam case could go on for a while.
"Unless you hear those magical words" impasse "," stalemate "," we are not able to come to a verdict, the Court will "let them go for many, many more days," said Gershman.
The case is U.S. v Raj Rajaratnam et al., U.s. District Court for the Southern District of New York, no. 09-01184.
(Reporting by Carlyn Kolker, Grant McCool and Jonathan stamp)
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