'PIO portfolio manager's conviction should not be overturned'

An Indian-origin portfolio manager, convicted for his role in one of the most lucrative insider trading schemes in US history, should not be granted his motion for acquittal on the charges and neither should he get a new trial, federal prosecutors have told a court here.
Mathew Martoma, 39, was convicted in February of one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and two counts of securities fraud. A former portfolio manager of CR Intrinsic Investors, a division of SAC Capital, Martoma would be sentenced in June and faces upto 20 years in prison.
In a motion filed in court, Martoma has urged a federal judge to acquit him on the charges and sought a new trial, saying the government failed to prove "beyond a reasonable doubt" at trial that he had obtained material, non-public information from former University of Michigan neurologist Sidney Gilman about an Alzheimer's disease drug that was being developed by pharmaceutical companies Elan and Wyeth.

He asked the court to order a new trial, saying the jury had become biased after reports surfaced during trial that he had been dismissed from Harvard Law School.
Manhattan's top attorney Preet Bharara and his team of federal prosecutors have submitted before a federal judge that the court should deny Martoma's motions for judgment of acquittal or for a new trial.
"The government presented ample proof to satisfy the elements of each of the charged crimes. The evidence at trial overwhelmingly established that Martoma received material, non-public information. Martoma's motion must therefore be denied," Bharara said in court papers.

Federal prosecutors said Martoma is wrong to assert that the government failed to demonstrate he had acted with criminal intent. They added that Martoma's argument that the government failed to prove Martoma knew the information he received was non-public is also wrong.
"There was ample evidence at trial from which a rational trier of fact could conclude that Martoma knew the information he received" from one of the drug trial's principal investigators Joel Ross and chairman of the Drug Trial's Safety Monitoring Committee Sidney Gilman was "provided in violation of a duty" to Elan and Wyeth.