India-born former Goldman Sachs director Rajat Gupta was today sentenced to two years in prison after his bid to overturn his conviction on insider trading charges was rejected by a US court.
The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in its order rejected Gupta’s appeal against his conviction and said, “We have considered all of Gupta’s arguments on this appeal and have found them to be without merit. The judgement of the district court is affirmed,” the order said.
65-year-old Gupta was found guilty in June 2012 of securities fraud and conspiracy to commit securities fraud.
He was charged with passing confidential boardroom information about Goldman Sachs to now jailed hedge fund founder Raj Rajaratnam.
This information included information on Goldman’s financial results, as well as a crucial $5-billion investment by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc.
Earlier this week, US regulator Security and Exchange Commission had asked the court to affirm a district court’s decision that Gupta pay a $13.9-million penalty and be banned for life from serving as director of a public corporation.
Gupta, the former head of McKinsey & Co, the global consulting firm, is the most prominent corporate executive convicted in the Government’s sweeping investigation into insider trading.
The case, which caps a wave of successful insider trading prosecutions over the past years, is a significant victory for the government, which has penetrated some of Wall Street’s most vaunted hedge funds and reached into America’s most prestigious corporate boardrooms.