Hedge fund boss testifies at NY trial that trades were based on research, not inside info

His testimony was unusual because several other defendants who went to trial in the past several years on insider trading charges in Manhattan chose not to testify. And the majority of the dozens of people charged in the last four years in several related insider trading investigations have pleaded guilty.

But the Whitman case stood apart from others even before the defendant took the stand. At his trial, the government for the first time found it relevant to call to the witness stand Roomy Khan.

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Khan had testified that Whitman was among several close friends she routinely fed inside tips between 2004 and 2008, when he lived a 5-minute walk away from her home in Atherton, Calif.