Billed as a knock-down, drag-out courtroom battle, the Raj Rajaratnam insider trading trial opened in Manhattan with so many onlookers jockeying for seats that it took two overflow rooms with closed-circuit TV to accommodate them. The high-stakes prosecution of a hedge-fund billionaire began with all the anticipated drama.

“Greed and corruption,” were the opening words of Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Streeter as he began to describe the case.