Rengan Rajaratnam
Rengan Rajaratnam embraces his lawyer Daniel Gitner as they exit the US District Court for the Southern District of New York in Lower Manhattan on 8 July. Reuters

A federal jury in New York has found Rengan Rajaratnam, the younger brother of imprisoned Galleon Group founder Raj Rajaratnam, not guilty of the lone conspiracy count he faced at an insider trading trial.

After deliberating for less than four hours on 8 July, the jury found Rengan, a former portfolio manager at Galleon, not guilty of conniving with his older brother to commit insider trading in 2008.

While Rengan, 43, has escaped being convicted of criminal charges, a pending civil lawsuit by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), put off during the criminal case, could be reactivated, Reuters reported.

The SEC lawsuit alleges that there was a broader scheme involving additional stocks and trading during Rengan's time at Sedna Capital Management, a fund he founded and worked at until 2007.

Pursued by the news agency, a spokeswoman for the SEC did not immediately comment.

Defence attorney Daniel Gitner praised the jury's "careful attention." He said: "As I told the jury, today is the day Rengan has been waiting for."

Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bharara said in a statement: "While we are disappointed with the verdict on the sole count that the jury was permitted to consider, we respect the jury trial system whatever the outcome,"

Prior to 8 July, a crackdown on insider trading, led by Bharara's office, has resulted in the conviction of 81 people with no acquittals since October 2009.

On 2 July, US District Judge Naomi Buchwald dismissed two insider trading counts against Rengan, saying prosecutors had not presented evidence proving he was aware that information about wireless broadband firm Clearwire and chip maker AMD was exchanged for a benefit.

Three years ago, jurors in the same New York courthouse convicted Raj, 57, for an insider trading scheme that resulted in $63.8m (£37.2m, €46.8m) in illegitimate profit.

Raj, serving an 11-year prison sentence at the Federal Medical Center-Devens in Ayer, Massachusetts, plans to request the US Supreme Court to review his conviction.

The Rengan case is US versus Rajaratnam, US District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 13-00211.

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