Ex-McKinsey director testifies against Rajaratnam

Ex-McKinsey director Anil Kumar today testified he leaked secrets about the premier consulting firm’s clients in exchange for $1 million over a period to his friend and ex-Wharton classmate Raj Rajaratnam, the main accused in the biggest insider trading case in decades.

“Rajaratnam kept asking me for that information and I felt that I owed him something given how much money he was paying me,” Kumar told the jury on the third day of the trial on how he was secretly hired as a consultant in 2003 in violation of McKinsey rules.

The central question of the case is whether the 53-year-old Sri Lankan-born billionaire and Galleon Group founder earned $45 million by using leaked confidential information. Rajaratnam has denied any wrongdoing saying his strategies were based on “public information”.

“You work very, very hard. You are underpaid. People are making fortunes.... So just keep track of your knowledge and share it with me, good knowledge that’s worth a lot of money,” Kumar said.

Last year, 51-year-old India-born Kumar pleaded guilty to receiving $1 million to provide secret information to Rajaratnam from 2003 to 2009.