Chidanand Rajghatta TNN
Washington: It was a dark, despair-filled Dashami for Rajat Gupta and his family after the Indian-American icon and Wall Street titan was sentenced to two years in prison and ordered to pay a fine of $5 million. Gupta was convicted of insider trading in a case prosecuted by another Indian-American, New York Southern District attorney Preet Bharara.
The verdict was announced around 1.45am IST on Thursday and the news appeared in TOI’s online edition.
Gupta will begin serving his sentence only after the holiday season on January 8, when he is required to report to prison, but the intervening Diwali festivities cannot be too joyful for a family that prized integrity and honor even amid great success. That the sentencing came on Dashami, a day symbolizing the victory of good over forces of evil, was all the more excruciating.
It was evident in the pained faces and tortured words of the family, according to accounts from the courtroom. Rajat Gupta’s wife of 39 years, Anita Gupta nee Mattoo, his IIT junior by two years, hid her tear-stained eyes behind dark glasses, and his four daughters, Geetanjali, Megha, Aditi, and Deepali,
wept through the proceedings. FALL OF GREEK TRAGEDY PROPORTIONS
My client has suffered a fall of Greek tragedy proportions Gary Naftalis | DEFENCE COUNSEL Gupta: Feel terrible I put my family through this
Washington:Rajat Gupta, the Wall Street titan who was sentenced on Wednesday to two years in jail for insider trading, spoke feelingly in the courtroom about what his family has had to endure. “Anita and I have brought up our daughters with the values of honesty, integrity and hard work. We are a close and loving family. They have had to endure a barrage of negative press about their father and husband, unkind comments from their colleagues and classmates, uncertain prospects for their future careers and a host of other negative outcomes. It is unbearable to me to see how much they have suffered. I just feel terribly that I have put them through this,” he said.
His eldest daughter Geetanjali, who is married into the family of a Nigerian diplomat, testified in court early on in proceedings, but it was the travails of his third daughter Aditi, who like her dad went to Harvard Business School (HBS), that Gupta seemed to be describing.
In one of the most poignant moments of the trail, Aditi recounted how she suffered on campus because of her father’s legal troubles, with news articles about her father’s case “magically appearing” in her on-campus mailbox and an e-mail that circulated calling for HBS to cut all ties with Gupta, who served on the school’s advisory board.
She said she never told her father about these incidents, and “nor did I tell him…what it was like to try and maintain my composure in a class of 90 people when Preet Bharara”—the US attorney who prosecuted her father—“arrived to speak in one of my first year classes”.
The Gupta family will repair to their primary residence in Westport, Connecticut, one of their several homes in the US, pending further challenges against the conviction by his legal team. For now though, it will be 10 more weeks of torment.
Times View: India needs rule of law
Whether Rajat Gupta has been unfairly punished or has got what he deserves is likely to remain a question that polarizes opinion sharply. Irrespective of which way you vote on that one, however, there is something more important to be taken note of here. Gupta was, by any reckoning, one of the icons of corporate America. Yet, when enforcers, rightly or wrongly, believed that he had bent or broken the rules, they were not afraid to go after him and nobody prevented them from doing so. It is this kind of action which signals loud and clear that the rule of law is supreme and nobody is above the law. We in India could do with some of that culture.
JUDGE RAKOFF
He (Gupta) is a good man. But the history of this country and of the world is full of examples of good men who did bad things
Gupta may have longed to escape the straightjacket of overwhelming responsibility, and had begun to loosen his self-restraint in ways that clouded his judgment
It (Gupta’s conduct) was the equivalent of stabbing Goldman in the back
Evidence against him was not only overwhelming, it was disgusting
GUPTA’S LAMENT
The last 18 months have been the most challenging period of my life since I lost my parents as a teenager.. I regret terribly the impact of this matter on my family, my friends and the institutions that are dear to me... I’ve lost my reputation I built for a lifetime...The overwhelming feelings in my heart are of acceptance of what has happened, of gratitude to my family and friends, and of seeking forgiveness from them all
HUMANITARIAN CONTRIBUTOR
Rajat has been one of the most effective builders of great institutions and a passionate contributor to humanitarian causes around the world. We continue to respect these contributions Ajit Rangnekar | DEAN, ISB
Losing a lifetime of reputation clearly because of an error of judgement is truly lamentable. I am saddened that in spite of the humanitarian work, unparalleled by any professional, it ended the way it has Ranjit Shahani | VC & MD, NOVARTIS INDIA