Gupta Trial Postponed After New Indictment

MANHATTAN (CN) - The trial of Rajat Gupta must be postponed six weeks because the government decided to level new charges in a recent superseding indictment, a federal judge ruled.

Gupta, a former member of the boards of the Goldman Sachs Group and Procter & Gamble, is accused of conspiring with Galleon Group founder Raj Rajaratnam to commit securities fraud. Rajaratnam was sentenced in October 2011 to 11 years in prison and in November he was fined $93 million. A federal jury convicted him in May 2011 of 14 counts of inside trading.

Prosecutors filed a superseding indictment against Gupta last week, to which Gupta again pleaded "not guilty" at a Tuesday hearing.

But Gupta's attorney Gary Naftalis said that the new charges significantly changed how his legal team must prepare for his defense. The government has handed him more than 822,000 documents from subpoenas, more than three-fourths of which he received in the "last few weeks," Naftalis said.

Prosecutor Reed Brodsky said the government is continuing its investigation against Gupta and wanted to consider filing another superseding indictment.

Naftalis bristled at the suggestion.

"It's time for them to try the case that they brought," Naftalis said. "If they don't have confidence in it, they don't have confidence in it."

U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff denied Brodsky's request.

"My goal is to get this show on the road in a way that his fair to all sides," Rakoff said.

The parties will meet again on March 16 for oral arguments.

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