Rajat Gupta sues US SEC over `unfair' trial

Former Goldman Sachs Group Inc director Rajat Gupta, who is accused of leaking confidential boardroom information to controversial trader Raj Rajaratnam, has sued the US Securities Exchange Commission (SEC), for trying to unfairly deprive him of a jury trial.

Rajat Gupta is fighting civil charges that he tipped the Galleon Group hedge fund founder Raj Rajaratnam about Warren Buffett's plans to invest in Goldman Sachs at the height of the financial crisis.

During the trial this week of Rajaratnam, the central figure in the insider trading case, jurors heard a secretly recorded telephone conservation in July 2008 between him and Gupta, then a Goldman director.

In the telephone conversation, Gupta was heard telling Rajaratnam about talks among the investment bank's board members about whether takeovers of Wachovia Corp or American International Group made sense.

Gupta is also a former worldwide managing director at management consultant McKinsey & Co. Neither McKinsey nor Goldman has been charged with any wrongdoing.

Legal eagles, however, are divided over Gupta's proceedings against the regulator even as the SEC is increasingly relying on the Dodd-Frank law to shift major enforcement cases out of federal courts, giving itself more powers in the process.