American Dream turns into a nightmare for Gupta
Source: Agencies |
June 18, 2012, Monday
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FORMER Goldman Sachs board member Rajat Gupta lived the American Dream before being led astray by a wealthy friend who was a master at insider trading.
That was the view of two jurors who on Friday voted with 10 others to convict Indian-born Gupta of three counts of securities fraud and one count of conspiracy for sharing corporate secrets with hedge fund manager Raj Rajaratnam, who is from Sri Lanka.
With the verdict, Gupta became the most prominent defendant convicted so far in a wide-ranging Wall Street inquiry conducted by investigators armed with wiretaps.
Prosecutors had alleged that Gupta's tips gave Rajaratnam an edge over ordinary investors on trades of over 350,000 shares of Goldman stock in 2008.
Rajaratnam, the billionaire founder of the Galleon hedge fund firm who was convicted last year, "was a very manipulative man," juror Rick Lebkowski said after the verdict. "He made it very easy for Mr Gupta to give him this information."
Recordings of Rajaratnam and Gupta casually chatting on the phone convinced juror Ronnie Sesso that Rajaratnam "was a savvy and sneaky man. ... He was a little snake in the grass."
Gupta, born in India, educated at Harvard and well-respected on Wall Street, was "a wonderful example of the American Dream," Lebkowski said. "I wanted to believe the allegations weren't true." But on the counts in which the jury found Gupta guilty, "the evidence was overwhelming," he added.
The jury reached a not-guilty verdict on two other securities fraud counts after less than two days of deliberations at the insider trading trial in federal court in Manhattan.
In a statement, FBI Assistant Director Janice K. Fedarcyk called the conviction "the latest milestone in an FBI initiative undertaken in 2007 to zero in on illegal conduct in the hedge fund industry."
That was the view of two jurors who on Friday voted with 10 others to convict Indian-born Gupta of three counts of securities fraud and one count of conspiracy for sharing corporate secrets with hedge fund manager Raj Rajaratnam, who is from Sri Lanka.
With the verdict, Gupta became the most prominent defendant convicted so far in a wide-ranging Wall Street inquiry conducted by investigators armed with wiretaps.
Prosecutors had alleged that Gupta's tips gave Rajaratnam an edge over ordinary investors on trades of over 350,000 shares of Goldman stock in 2008.
Rajaratnam, the billionaire founder of the Galleon hedge fund firm who was convicted last year, "was a very manipulative man," juror Rick Lebkowski said after the verdict. "He made it very easy for Mr Gupta to give him this information."
Recordings of Rajaratnam and Gupta casually chatting on the phone convinced juror Ronnie Sesso that Rajaratnam "was a savvy and sneaky man. ... He was a little snake in the grass."
Gupta, born in India, educated at Harvard and well-respected on Wall Street, was "a wonderful example of the American Dream," Lebkowski said. "I wanted to believe the allegations weren't true." But on the counts in which the jury found Gupta guilty, "the evidence was overwhelming," he added.
The jury reached a not-guilty verdict on two other securities fraud counts after less than two days of deliberations at the insider trading trial in federal court in Manhattan.
In a statement, FBI Assistant Director Janice K. Fedarcyk called the conviction "the latest milestone in an FBI initiative undertaken in 2007 to zero in on illegal conduct in the hedge fund industry."
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