The defendant, meanwhile, had the best lawyers money could buy poking holes in the government’s case. Since Gary P. Naftalis left a post as a Southern District prosecutor more than three decades ago, he’s been tapped by everyone from Kidder Peabody and Salomon Brothers to Michael Eisner and the former-CEOs of Arthur Andersen and WorldCom. The Times has dubbed Mr. Naftalis “Columbo with a law degree” for the lawyer’s disheveled looks and folksy sense of humor. In Judge Rakoff’s courtroom, Mr. Naftalis appeared as if he’d just stepped out of a rainstorm (it wasn’t raining). The Observer wasn’t fooled, of course, but we were a little bit charmed and certainly discouraged.
Mr. Naftalis is the type of lawyer you get when you have millions in the bank and a strong desire to stay out of prison. He’s the kind of lawyer that the prosecutors on the case, Reed Brodsky and Richard Tarlowe, may dream of one day becoming.
Mr. Naftalis’s goal was to blow some smoke, and he proved adept at it.
“If you’re the defense, the normal procedure is to get the jury confused and bored,” John Coffee, a Columbia law professor, told us. “If they’re bored, they miss the smoking gun when it’s produced. If the defense can get the legal issues convoluted, the jury is unlikely to send a man away over issues they can’t understand.”
He added: “I’ve testified as an expert witness in securities cases and looked over and actually seen jurors sleeping.”
“It’s part of the reason that there are so few criminal prosecutions,” said Steve Thel, a professor at Fordham Law. “Prosecutors are reluctant to take on complicated cases.”
Those selected to sit in judgment of the Gupta case included a registered nurse, an elementary school teacher and a freelance beauty consultant. “I am in awe of our jury because they have managed to remain attentive,” Judge Rakoff said last week, urging lawyers on both sides to make things more interesting.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Brodsky started dumbing down the financial lingo with his very first witness, asking Mr. Rajaratnam’s former executive assistant to define a hedge fund. “It’s a place where stocks are traded,” the witness answered. And we thought it was the loose bills our Auntie Vera keeps stashed in a coffee can to pay for gardening supplies! The next day, Assistant US Attorney Tarlowe asked a witness what an index was. “It’s a stock made up of other stocks,” came the reply.
At least the defense left those definitions uncontested. On day three of the trial, the defense unleashed a barrage of objections to Mr. Tarlowe’s examination of the trader who executed Mr. Rajaratnam’s infamous Goldman trade.
“What does it mean to raise $2.5 billion in a common stock offering?” Mr. Tarlowe asked.
