Vampire squid Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein testified today in the Galleon insider trading trial of Raj Rajaratnam. Rajaratnam, a hedge fund founder who is out on $100 million bail, is accused of a huge insider trading ring. The trial is pretty complicated, what with hours of secretly recorded conversation and financial details, and the jury is made up of mostly blue collar New Yorkers—and one alternate juror dubbed the "Hipster Juror" who has already fallen asleep—who don't know who the hell Lloyd Blankfein is.
Blankfein appeared to say that a former Goldman board member—Rajat Gupta—violated the company's confidentiality policy by discussing issues with Rajaratnam. A tape of Gupta telling Rajaratnam about possible deals was played, and prosecutors claimed that Gupta also mentioned Berkshire Hathaway's $5 billion investment in Goldman, which then prompted Rajaratnam to buy shares in the investment firm.
What's interesting is that the prosecution directed questions to Blankfein without mentioning the words "financial crisis"—according to Dealbook, "Before Mr. Blankfein’s testimony, prosecutors had expressed concern that testimony about the financial crisis could unfairly prejudice the jury against Mr. Blankfein. In his testimony on Wednesday, Mr. Blankfein described September 2008 as 'a volatile period in the market,' saying that it was 'a dangerous time' that 'made us nervous.' There was also 'riskiness,' and a 'general insecurity,' he said." Goldman received a $10 billion TARP bailout in 2008; the year before, Blankfein was paid $68 million.
