Blankfein Takes the Witness Stand

Lloyd Blankfein, CEO of Goldman Sachs, checks his bank's profit every day, prefers voice mail to e-mail, and makes unscheduled calls to board members at times of market "uncertainty." His testimony at the insider-trading trial of Raj Rajaratnam was intended to bolster prosecution claims that one of those board members, Rajat Gupta, who joined in 2006, passed on information he learned from the board. Most of his testimony was devoted to his conversations with Gupta. Blankfein also said that disclosing information discussed in board meetings violates company policy: Goldman Sachs is a public company. It does not want information about the company to get outside before the time is appropriate.