Federal prosecutors today expanded their insider trading case against Westporter Rajat Gupta, a former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. director, saying the illegal activity lasted longer and involved more trades than alleged.
Rajat Gupta: new allegations made. File photo

A new indictment filed in Manhattan federal court expanded the period in which Gupta, 63, supposedly provided illegal tips to his friend Raj Rajaratnam, the Galleon Group hedge fund founder now serving an 11-year prison term following his insider trading conviction.

The charges now relate to trades that prosecutors said Rajaratnam made between March 2007 and January 2009 in the stock of Goldman and Procter & Gamble Co., where Gupta was also a director.

Gupta, a former chief of the consulting firm McKinsey & Co., is the most prominent corporate executive to face insider trading charges in a wide-ranging federal probe since Rajaratnam was arrested in October 2009. He has pleaded not guilty.

By James Lomuscio

“I Love New York.” “New Jersey and You.” “Virginia is for Lovers.”

Tony Kobylinski: Seeking “major rock” brand. Contributed photo

And Connecticut?

Westporter Tony Kobylinski is thinking.

Kobylinski, whose New York ad firm this month got a piece of Gov.  Dannel P. Malloy’s $22 million state marketing campaign, says the most demanding task will be to develop “a brand for the state.”

“I think one of the biggest challenges is to bring the Connecticut DNA to the forefront because right now there’s really a lack of any kind of brand for the state,” said Kobylinski, creative director for Chowder, Inc., one of four companies hired from 21 proposals for the two-year campaign.

“I really think of it as Connecticut’s DNA, and that’s what we’re trying to find an uncover,” added the Westport resident of 15 years. “I know it’s there.”

By Dave Matlow

The Westport-Weston Chamber of Commerce has selected Lisa Parrelli Gray, a Westporter with broad experience in community activities and background in business development, as its new executive director.

Lisa Parrelli Gray: begins next week. Contributed photo

Official announcement of the appointment is expected next week when she officially starts, according to a member of the Chamber board, but the Chamber website already lists her as executive director.

The executive director position at the Chamber has been vacant since February 2011 when Lisa Thygerson, executive director since May 2009, resigned to take a position as manager of a Citibank branch in Stratford.

A communications graduate of Duquesne University, Gray has recently served as a court-appointed advocate on behalf of children in care of the Department of Children and Families.

Westport’s unemployment rate in December was 5.1 percent, down from 5.5 percent in November and the lowest in more than three years, the Connecticut Department of Labor said today.

It was the lowest since the 4.5 percent rate recorded in August 2008. A year ago in December, Westport had a 5.7 percent unemployment rate.

The lowest Westport unemployment rate in recent years was 2.2 percent in December 2006, according to state records.

The department said the number of Westport unemployed in December was 651, down from 704 in November.

Members of the online Meetup group FairCo TEEM (Technology, Entertainment, Environment and Marketing) met at Westport’s Veterans of Foreign Wars Post tonight to hear a discussion about Google+ vs Facebook. Westporter John Blossom, president of Shore Communications, presented the case for Google+, the platform that’s been built from the ground up to avoid the mistakes of all the other social media platforms. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Contributed photo