A California hedge fund manager, Doug Whitman, earned that distinction on Monday, confidently telling Manhattan federal court jurors about his long career tracking and trading telecommunications stocks and challenging the testimony of a key prosecution witness.

Whitman, 54, said under questioning from his lawyer, David Anderson, that in January 2006 he never used improper inside information on videoconference company Polycom Inc (>> Polycom Inc) from former technology company researcher-turned-FBI-informant Roomy Khan.

Whitman said she was "just repeating to me what I told her" and that Whitman Capital "had already started our investment decisions" after determining Polycom was heading for an improved quarter in its financial performance. Whitman's testimony will continue on Tuesday.

Prosecutors accuse Whitman of illegally using inside sources to get advance information on the financial performance of Google Inc, Polycom Inc and Marvell Technology Group Ltd (>> Marvell Technology Group Ltd.) between 2006 and 2009. They said he made $900,000 in profits.

Last week, Khan testified against Whitman for the prosecution. She said she told Whitman about her sources of inside information at Polycom and Google Inc (>> Google Inc)[ID:nL2E8J7EDQ].

It is rare, but not unheard of, for defendants in white-collar criminal cases to testify at their trials, where they face a risky cross-examination by a prosecutor.

The grey-suited Whitman spoke in his own defense to the jury -- where swashbuckling onetime billionaire Galleon Group hedge fund founder Raj Rajaratnam and former McKinsey and Co head and Goldman Sachs Group Inc (>> Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.) board member, Rajat Gupta, chose not to at their insider-trading trials in the same courthouse.

Rajaratnam was convicted in May 2011 and is serving an 11-year prison sentence. Gupta was convicted in June and is expected to be sentenced later this year. At least five other defendants were convicted at trial in the past year and did not testify in their own defense.

Khan pleaded guilty to criminal charges in October 2009 but has yet to be sentenced. Dozens of traders, hedge fund managers, lawyers and consultants have pleaded guilty or been convicted at trial of insider trading since 2009 in a broad investigation by the FBI and the office of the Manhattan U.S. Attorney.

Whitman is charged with securities fraud and conspiracy, which carry a combined possible maximum prison sentence of 25 years. His trial before U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff began on July 31.

Federal prosecutors rested the government case on Monday. The defense could finish its part of the trial in two days. The jury could hear closing arguments from both sides on Wednesday or Thursday.

The case is USA v Doug Whitman in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, No. 12-125.

(Reporting By Grant McCool; editing by M.D. Golan)

By Grant McCool