Single trial for three accused in Dell insider case: Judge

By Basil Katz

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Two former hedge fund portfolio managers and an analyst charged in a $62 million insider trading scheme will go to trial together in October, a U.S. judge ruled on Thursday.

Lawyers for each of the defendants had sought to convince U.S. District Judge Richard Sullivan in Manhattan that they were entitled to separate trials.

Prosecutors in Manhattan announced the charges against the three in January in a sweep dubbed "Operation Perfect Hedge" by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Their arrest was part of the government's campaign to root out illicit trading on Wall Street, in which a total of 70 people have so far been charged.

A lawyer for Todd Newman, who worked at hedge fund Diamondback Capital Management, told the judge that a jury would be prejudiced against his client if it was allowed to hear the size of the illicit gains one of the other defendants, Anthony Chiasson, is accused of reaping.

"We have all seen the protests, the 99 percent..." attorney Stephen Fishbein said. Given the ongoing "financial crisis," Fishbein said, "I can't think of a more emotional issue in this day and age."

The judge, however, was not sympathetic.

"I tried a murder trial with the shooter and the look-out at the same time. How do you think they felt?" Sullivan said.