Brazil's fallen tycoon Eike Batista on trial for insider trading

Former billionaire Eike Batista's public persona makes his insider-trading trial a landmark case in Brazil, according to the judge hearing the case.

"Eike is a symbolic figure," Judge Flavio Roberto de Souza told reporters in Rio de Janeiro after the trial's first hearing on Tuesday.

"I always say he was the poster boy of his own companies and with a megalomaniac dream of becoming the world's richest man. To see a person with that type of attitude sitting on the accused bench is really a historic moment."

Batista was the world's eighth-richest person in early 2012 before his empire of commodities and logistics companies collapsed.

The first session in a trial for alleged insider trading and market manipulation against Batista ended in a downtown Rio court after hearing three witnesses called by prosecutors. Souza set December 10 and December 17 for new hearings, when Batista may testify.

The opening day resembled a film set, with the judge, a Buddhist who meditates twice a day for about 40 minutes, competing with Batista's legal team for the attention of several film crews present in the room.

Just as his ascent to the top rung of the global rich list brought 58-year-old Batista legendary status, so has his sudden descent into the biggest corporate failure in South America.