PTI nIn yet another setback for Rajat Gupta, a US judge has rejected his fresh appeal to overturn his two-year sentence for insider trading in which the India -born former Goldman Sachs director cited insufficient evidence of him receiving ‘personal benefit’ in exchange for providing tips on company results.
District Judge Jed Rakoff said in a 9-page ruling issued on Thursday in the Southern District Court that Gupta's argument that the evidence of personal benefits presented at the trial was insufficient to sustain his conviction calling it ‘both too late and too little’.Gupta, 66, was convicted in 2012 of passing confidential boardroom information to now jailed hedge fund founder Raj Rajaratnam.
He appealed his conviction on various grounds, but the US Federal Court of Appeals and even the Supreme Court rejected his arguments and affirmed the conviction.Gupta is currently serving a two-year prison term in a federal prison in Massachusetts state and is scheduled to be released in March next year.In his new appeal, Gupta cited the Appeals Court's recent decision in which it reversed the insider convictions of hedge-fund managers Todd Newman and Anthony Chiasson.