Hedge fund boss testifies at NY inside trade trial

(AP) A San Francisco hedge fund founder told jurors at his New York trial that his trades were based on legitimate research rather than inside information.

Douglas Whitman testified at his trial on Monday, denying charges that he used inside information to make nearly $1 million. His testimony was unusual because several other defendants who went to trial in the past several years on insider trading charges chose not to testify.

The president of Whitman Capital disputed the testimony of the government's central witness against him, Roomy Khan. He said Khan never gave him inside information in January 2006 about Polycom Inc., a telecommunications company. She had testified that she did.

Whitman said she only told him exactly what he had told her about Polycom's likely positive quarterly results.