Hedge fund billionaire Raj Rajaratnam has been found guilty of 14 counts of securities fraud and conspiracy by a federal jury in Manhattan, writes The American Lawyer.

The verdict against the founder of the Galleon Group was delivered yesterday (11 May) after six days of deliberations that followed a nine-week trial on insider trading charges, according to The New York Times.

Rajaratnam (pictured) now faces up to 19-and-a-half years in prison under federal sentencing guidelines.

At the time of his arrest in autumn 2009, prosecutors claimed Rajaratnam was at the centre of one of the largest insider trading rings in US history. The government's case ensnared several other defendants, from Wall Street bigwigs like former Goldman Sachs director Rajat Gupta and ex-IBM executive Robert Moffat Jr, to two former Ropes & Gray associates and a personal injury lawyer.

Former Ropes associates Arthur Cutillo and Brien Santarlas, and personal injury lawyer Jason Goldfarb later pleaded guilty to being participants in the insider trading scheme.

Rajaratnam initially retained Gibson Dunn & Crutcher white-collar defence co-chair Jim Walden before switching to Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld white-collar co-leader John Dowd. Dowd reportedly claimed that his client "took advantage of public information available to the whole world" in urging the jury to acquit. The defence strategy, which centred on a "mosaic theory" of investing, included a website that served as a clearing house of information about the case and a Twitter account.

A critical element of the  case against Rajaratnam was the use of wiretaps that recorded phone calls between the defendant and his alleged co-conspirators. Prosecutors alleged that Rajaratnam made nearly $64m (£39.3m) in illicit profits from tips provided by corporate insiders.

Leading the team for the prosecution were assistant US attorneys Reed Brodsky, Andrew Michaelson, and Jonathan Streeter. In addition to Dowd, Akin Gump partners Terence Lynam, Jeffrey King, Robert Hotz Jr, Samidh Guha, and William White represented Rajaratnam at trial.

The case was tried before US district court judge Richard Holwell, who before being appointed to the bench in 2003 worked at White & Case.

After six days of deliberations – the jury had previously deliberated for a week but one juror had to be excused for health reasons – eight women and four men agreed with the government and rendered their guilty verdict.

Rajaratnam is expected to appeal. Sentencing is scheduled for 29 July.

The American Lawyer is a US affiliate title of Legal Week.

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