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their illegal trading.

The former SAC Capital trader who admitted to being part of the scheme is Jon Horvath. Mr. Horvath admitted passing confidential information to his portfolio manager, who was named an unindicted co- conspirator in the case. The portfolio manager is Michael Steinberg, according to a person with direct knowledge of the case who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss it publicly.

Barry Berke, a lawyer for Mr. Steinberg, declined to comment.

The reported conspiracy's origins are traced to Sandeep Goyal, a former Dell employee who left the technology industry to take a job on Wall Street. While working as a technology stock analyst at the money manager Neuberger Berman, Mr. Goyal tapped a contact inside Dell to obtain advance word about the computer maker's financial results. He then gave that information to his network of contacts on hedge fund trading floors, and it ultimately reached Mr. Chiasson and Mr. Newman, prosecutors say.

Mr. Goyal has pleaded guilty to insider trading; the unnamed Dell executive has not been charged in the case. Earlier in their careers, Mr. Goyal, Mr. Tortora and Mr. Adondakis all worked together at the Prudential Equity Group, and they socialized together in New York and in the Hamptons, upscale beachfront towns outside the city.

The F.B.I. raid had a devastating effect on Level Global, which closed shortly after the U.S. agents seized trading records and hardware from the firm. Diamondback has remained in business. This year, it paid about $9 million to settle a lawsuit brought against it by the Securities and Exchange Commission related to the Dell trades. It also struck a nonprosecution agreement with the Justice Department.

Level Global made by far the most profit in the conspiracy, pocketing about $57 million by betting against Dell stock before a negative earnings announcement, prosecutors say.

Mr. Chiasson and David Ganek started Level Global in 2003 shortly after leaving SAC Capital. At Level Global's peak, they managed about $4 billion in assets and had marquee clients like the New York State pension fund. They used the name Level, Mr. Chiasson once said, because the word "connotes balance and adaptability -- two key investing traits."

Mr. Chiasson's reserved style contrasted with that of Mr. Ganek, who was more voluble. While Mr. Chiasson steered clear of New York society, Mr. Ganek and his wife, the novelist Danielle Ganek, became fixtures at charity events and art auctions. Mr. Ganek has not been charged in the case.

Mr. Newman, who is accused of making about $3.8 million in illegal profit, worked at Tudor Investment, one of the world's most prominent hedge funds, before joining Diamondback. He was part of a tight network of hedge fund traders based in Boston who specialized in technology stocks.

Lawyers for Mr. Chiasson and Mr. Newman tried to turn their cases into two separate trials, arguing that they had not been part of a single purported conspiracy. Judge Richard J. Sullivan denied that request.

Reid H. Weingarten, a partner at Steptoe & Johnson who defended Bernard J. Ebbers, the former WorldCom chief executive, and Gregory Morvillo of the Morvillo law firm, represent Mr. Chiasson. Representing Mr. Newman are Stephen Fishbein and John A. Nathanson, both of Shearman & Sterling.

Trying the case for the government are Antonia M. Apps and Richard C. Tarlowe, one of the prosecutors who secured the conviction of Mr. Gupta, the former Goldman Sachs director.

A 12-member jury has been impaneled after two days of jury selection. Lawyers dismissed a number of potential jurors with connections to the case, including a doorman at Mr. Chiasson's luxury New York apartment building and a former business- development executive at SAC Capital.