Bhagat

I. FACTUAL and PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

Bhagat’s employer, Nvidia Corporation (Nvidia), success- fully competed for a multi-million dollar contract to develop a video game console (the X-Box) for the Microsoft Corpora- tion. Upon receiving the contract, Nvidia’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) sent a company-wide e-mail late Sunday night announcing the contract award. The next morning, Nvidia sent a number of follow-up e-mails. The first e-mail advised Nvidia employees that the X-Box information should be kept confidential. The other e-mails imposed a trading blackout on the purchase of Nvidia stock for several days, and required 1 The government has withdrawn its cross-appeal challenging the sen- tence imposed. 1420 UNITED STATES v. BHAGAT Nvidia’s employees to cancel any open or outstanding orders for Nvidia stock.

A. Insider Trading Allegations Against Bhagat

The government’s theory of prosecution was that Bhagat read the CEO’s Sunday night e-mail prior to purchasing Nvidia stock. To support this theory, the government intro- duced evidence that Bhagat arrived at work on Monday mid- morning, and that all of the company-wide e-mails were on his computer. The…