Nute Gunray was a Neimoidian male who served as the Viceroy of the Trade Federation and a high-ranking member of the Separatist Confederacy of Independent Systems and chairman of the Separatist Council. Gunray led the Trade Federation through its invasion of the planet Naboo, at the behest of the Sith Lord Darth Sidious—who was secretly Sheev Palpatine, the Senator of Naboo, and who had engineered the conflict to be elected Supreme Chancellor. The Federation invasion was repelled and Gunray was arrested, but he avoided punishment after four trials in the Supreme Court.