A former board member of Goldman Sachs and Procter & Gamble has pleaded not guilty and been freed on $10 million bail. : Rajat Gupta, former corporate chairman and member of the Boards of Directors of Goldman Sachs and Procter & Gamble was today charged in a six count indictment for engaging in insider trading with jailed Galleon Group founder Raj Rajaratnam.

Gupta, who surrendered before the FBI earlier, was arrested and charged with committing securities fraud as he shared confidential information with hedge fund manager Rajaratnam.  Rajat Gupta entered the plea to all six counts in an indictment unsealed Wednesday. Gupta had surrendered to the FBI earlier in the day. For each of the securities fraud charges, Gupta faces a maximum fine of USD 5 million or twice the gross gain or loss derived from the crime.

"Today's surrender is the latest step in an initiative launched by the FBI in 2007 targeting hedge fund insider trading," said FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge Janice Fedarcyk.

The Indian-born Gupta, 62, was accused of cheating the markets with Raj Rajaratnam, the convicted hedge fund founder who was the probe's prime target. More than two dozen people have been convicted in the probe. Gupta's attorney, Gary Naftalis, said that "the government's allegations are totally baseless."

“He did not trade in any securities, did not tip Mr. Rajaratnam so he could trade, and did not share in any profits as part of any quid pro quo," Naftalis said in a statement.

Rajaratnam had been sentenced earlier this month to 11 years in prison. Securities laws prohibit company insiders from divulging corporate secrets to those who then profit from them. A native of Kolkata, Gupta had a meteoric rise to corporate success after he graduated from Harvard Business School. He advised business leaders including General Electric's Jeffrey Immelt and Henry Kravis of the private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Company.

He had also served as special adviser to the United Nations. Gupta's name emerged in the insider trading scheme a week before Rajaratnam's trial in March, when the Securities and Exchange Commission filed an administrative proceeding against him accusing him of passing confidential information about Goldman Sachs and Procter & Gamble to Rajaratnam, who then traded on the information and profited from it.