Deliberations to Begin in GAF Stock Deal Case

Jury deliberations are due to begin today in the GAF Corp. stock market manipulation trial, which has been under way in federal court in Manhattan for more than five weeks.

U.S. District Judge Mary Johnson Lowe spent much of Friday instructing jurors on the legal issues in the case. They were then to be sent to a hotel for the night. The judge has ordered the jury sequestered, meaning that jurors won’t be allowed to go home at night, to avoid any exposure to press coverage of the trial.

GAF Corp. and its vice chairman, James T. Sherwin, are accused of arranging with the Los Angeles-based brokerage firm Jefferies & Co. to illegally bid up the closing price of Union Carbide’s stock in late 1986, at a time when GAF was preparing to sell a big block of Carbide shares.

Eight criminal counts are pending against GAF and Sherwin, including conspiracy, stock market manipulation and securities fraud.

Depending on how long it takes the jury of nine women and three men to review the evidence, a verdict could come as early as this weekend.