The eldest daughter of former Goldman Sachs director Rajat Gupta, facing trail for insider trading, today told the jury that her father was "very upset, frustrated and stressed" about his USD 10 million loss in an investment fund parked with convicted hedge fund founder Raj Rajaratnam's Galleon group.
Geetanjali Gupta, a law and management student from Harvard, returned to the Manhattan federal court today as a defense witness.
When asked by the prosecutor do you love your father, would you do anything to help him, she replied in a composed and confident manner.
"Yes I love him. I will do anything to help him but I would not lie on the stand," Geetanjali, 33, said.
As she walked out of the courtroom, 63-year-old Gupta looked at her and choked up and became visibly emotional.
Gupta's wife and his three other daughters were sitting right behind him in the court's spectator gallery.
In her testimony, Geetanjali told the jury that her father was "very upset, frustrated and stressed" about his USD 10 million loss that he had incurred in the investment fund with the Sri Lankan-origin Rajaratnam.
The daughter said her father is a relatively calm and collective person that he was very stressed and was running his hands through his hair when he discussed with her about the investment loss.
The defense showed an e-mail to the jury from Gupta's daughter to him in which she addressed him as "baba" and asked him "how bad are things with Rajaratnam fund."
Before Gupta's daughter was brought to the courtroom the defense and the prosecution had an heated argument over admitting the testimony of Geetanjali regarding what she perceived about her father's stress over the money he had lost with Galleon hedge fund founder Rajaratnam.
If convicted 63-year-old Gupta, who served on boards of various companies, faces up to 25 years in prison.
The former McKinsey head is accused of breaching his fiduciary duties by passing secret corporate information to Rajaratnam, who is currently serving an 11-year prison sentence.
