Rajaratnam: US pushed to turn on friend - report

• Rajaratnam tells Daily Beast he refused to wear a wire
• Sri Lankan astrology influenced decision to fight case

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Just weeks before fallen hedge fund tycoon Raj Rajaratnam was sentenced to 11 years in prison for insider trading, U.S. prosecutors pressed him to turn on his friend, former Goldman Sachs director Rajat Gupta, The Daily Beast online newspaper reported.

In his first interview about his case, Rajaratnam was quoted as saying that he was initially asked on the day of his Oct. 16, 2009 arrest to ``wear a wire’’ and record conversations with Gupta, also a longtime global head of elite consultancy, McKinsey & Co.

The article, posted at http://bit.ly/oSXZ8T , said prosecutors asked Sri Lankan-born Rajaratnam again as late as two weeks before his Oct. 13 sentencing in Manhattan federal court.

``They wanted me to plea bargain,’’ The Daily Beast quotes the Galleon Group founder as saying, in an interview at his Manhattan apartment where he is under house arrest. ``They want to get Rajat. I am not going to do what people did to me. Rajat has four daughters.’’

The opinion of a Sri Lankan astrologist combined with a history of suspected persecution led to Rajaratnam’s decision to fight the case, despite extensive phone taps and other overwhelming evidence, the report said.

``He (the astrologer) said that eventually I would prevail,’’ Rajaratnam, 54, was quoted by the The Daily Beast as saying.

A spokeswoman for Rajaratnam’s lawyers at law firm Akin Gump declined to comment on Monday. A spokesman for Gupta’s lawyer, Gary Naftalis, referred to previous statements that his client had done nothing wrong and that a civil case brought by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission was baseless.

A spokeswoman for the office of the Manhattan U.S. Attorney, who brought the case, declined to comment.

The investigation featured extensive use of secret FBI phone taps. Such tactics usually are reserved for Mafia and drug trafficking investigations, but the hedge fund manager and several of his South Asian business associates and friends were recorded or agreed to be recorded.

Rajaratnam, the central figure in a sprawling insider trading case, was convicted by a jury in May on all 14 criminal charges he faced. His 11-year prison sentence is the longest ever in an insider-trading case. He must report to prison on Nov. 28.

Rajaratnam told the newspaper he respected the U.S. justice system. 

The case is USA v Raj Rajaratnam et al, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, No. 09-01184.