less than three months before his two-year prison term ends, India-born former Goldman Sachs director Rajat Gupta has lost yet another bid to overturn his conviction on insider trading charges, with an appeals court here rejecting his latest legal challenge.
The US Second Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday dismissed Gupta's appeal in which he argued that there was insufficient evidence at trial to prove he had received personal benefits from now-jailed hedge fund founder Raj Rajaratnam in exchange for confidential board room information about Goldman Sachs. Rajaratnam is serving an 11-year term in the same prison as Gupta. 67-year-old Gupta had moved the court seeking a ‘certificate of appealability’ but in the ruling the court ‘denied’ the motion and ‘dismissed’ his appeal.
“Appellant has not shown that 'jurists of reason would find it debatable whether the district court was correct in its procedural ruling' As to whether Appellant's claim was procedurally defaulted," Circuit Judges Susan Carney and Christopher Droney said in their ruling.
Gupta's two-year prison term ends in March next year and ever since his conviction in June 2012, he has filed several appeals, including to the US Supreme Court, to overturn his conviction and prison term but the courts have rejected his arguments and affirmed his sentence. The ex-McKinsey chief is currently serving his prison term in a federal prison in Ayer, Massachusetts. Gupta had last filed an appeal in August in the US Court of Appeals against the July ruling by District Judge Jed Rakoff who had rejected Gupta's appeal.