Closing Arguments Begin in Hedge Fund Boss Rajaratnam Insider Trading Trial

Six weeks after it began, the trial of hedge fund manager Raj Rajaratnam will enter its final phase Wednesday in a Manhattan courtroom.

Government lawyers will try to convince the jury that the former billionaire hedge fund boss illegally solicited and obtained stock tips about publicly traded companies including Goldman Sachs, Hilton Hotels and Google.

Several cooperating witnesses have already testified they supplied Rajaratnam's Galleon hedge fund with confidential information that gave him an edge in stock trading. Rajaratnam is accused of $63.8 million in ill-gotten gains.

Defense lawyers are expected to argue Galleon traded stock based on a diverse array of information sources, and that the tips he got were not "material" information that would be important to other investors. The probe has already resulted in two dozen arrests and 19 guilty pleas.