Indian-origin hedge fund portfolio manager Mathew Martoma, convicted for his role in the most lucrative insider trading scheme in US history, has asked a court to overturn the verdict or give him a new trial as jury bias “tainted” the ruling.
Martoma said his conviction should be thrown out because “unrelated” information about his dismissal from Harvard Law School biased the jury against him and the government failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that he traded on material, non-public information.
Martoma, convicted on February 6, will be sentenced on June 10.
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He was found guilty by a federal jury for his role in the USD 275 million insider trading scheme after a month-long trial on one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and two counts of securities fraud related to a clinical trial involving Elan Corp and Wyeth, now part of Pfizer Inc, for an experimental drug to treat Alzheimer’s.
While the maximum prison sentence on all the three counts is 45 years, Martoma could face up to 15 to 20 years in prison. He also faces a fine of over USD 5 million on the charges.
In his motion, Martoma said the government failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that he committed any of the crimes he was charged with and that he obtained non-public information from two doctors who knew about the clinical trial.
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The government also could not prove that the two doctors obtained a personal benefit from sharing confidential material with Martoma, the motion said.
The prosecutors could not prove that Martoma agreed with the doctors who knew of the information about the clinical trial to commit insider trading or had the “requisite criminal intent to do so”, it said.