Gupta will not testify at trial Rajat Gupta, the former Goldman director accused of insider trading, will not testify at trial, his lawyer said on Sunday in a letter to the judge. The decision is a reversal from a statement made on Friday afternoon when Gary Naftalis, Mr Gupta's attorney, said it was "highly likely" his client would testify. However, Mr Naftalis did then leave open the possibility that he might change his mind. In the letter sent on Sunday to the judge and prosecutors, Mr Naftalis wrote: "After substantial reflection and consideration, we have determined that Mr Gupta will not be a witness on his own behalf in the defence case." Defendants are not required to take the stand and the decision to do so comes with risk. Lawyers say that testifying can shift the balance from whether members of the jury believe the government met its burden of proving the case beyond a reasonable doubt to whether they believe the defendant. In recent high-profile white-collar crime trials the defendants who did testify, including Bernard Ebbers, the former head of WorldCom, were convicted. Mr Gupta, the former worldwide head of McKinsey consultancy, is accused of passing corporate secrets to his former business partner Raj Rajaratnam, founder of the Galleon hedge fund. Prosecutors allege that Galleon made $13.5m in profits and avoided $3.8m in losses on the basis of the alleged tips. He has denied any wrongdoing. Prosecutors rested their case on Friday after calling 20 witnesses. As the trial enters its fourth week, lawyers for Mr Gupta, who have called three witnesses so far, will continue presenting his case. Two character witnesses have testified to Mr Gupta's honesty. Ajat Jain, head of Berkshire Hathaway's reinsurance business, testified in a video deposition on Friday that in January 2009 Mr Gupta said he had been "cheated" by Mr Rajaratnam out of his $10m investment in a Galleon-run hedge fund called Voyager. A central theme of Mr Gupta's defence is that he had no incentive to tell Mr Rajaratnam confidential corporate information from his director positions at Goldman and Procter & Gamble because his relationship with Mr Rajaratnam had deteriorated. Mr Gupta's attorneys have also suggested that their client called Mr Rajaratnam because he was trying to obtain paperwork from Galleon related to a loan he sought. If Mr Gupta had testified, he would have to explain the numerous phone calls that followed board meetings in 2007, 2008 and 2009, including two that were made less than a minute after the Goldman board met. Mr Gupta's attorneys are still honing their witness list, but the judge overseeing the case has told the jury to expect to hear closing arguments on Wednesday, after which deliberations will begin. Mr Gupta faces more than a decade in prison if convicted.