Former head of global consulting firm McKinsey & Co. and former director at Goldman Sachs Group, Rajat Gupta leaves federal court in New York. (AFP)
Prosecutors had charged Gupta — born in Kolkata and educated in Delhi’s Modern School and IIT, and later Harvard — with leaking inside information to his hedge-fund manager friend Raj Rajaratnam.
Rajaratnam, founder of the $7-billion Galleon hedge fund, is serving an 11-year jail term after his conviction last October.
The verdict marks a stunning fall for Gupta, 63, also a former top executive at McKinsey & Co and a former Procter & Gamble director.
“Rajat Gupta once stood at the apex of the international business community. Today, he stands convicted of securities fraud,” chief prosecutor Preet Bharara said. “Having fallen from respected insider to convicted inside trader, Mr Gupta has now exchanged the lofty board room for the prospect of a lowly jail cell.”