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Gates, Kofi seek fair verdict for Rajat Gupta
Bill Gates and Kofi Annan are among several prominent personalities who’ve written to a US judge asking him to show fairness when he sentences former Goldman Sachs director Rajat Gupta on October 24.
Bill Gates and Kofi Annan are among several prominent personalities who have written to a US judge asking him to show fairness when he sentences former Goldman Sachs director Rajat Gupta on October 24.
Gupta, 63, was convicted of insider trading in June.
Microsoft co-founder Gates, in one letter among about 200 written to US district judge Jed Rakoff, wrote that he wanted to help “round out Rajat’s profile as you consider the appropriate sentence for him”.
Gates — who worked with Gupta for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria — wrote, “Millions are leading better lives — or are alive at all — thanks to the efforts he so ably supported.”
Former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan wrote, “I urge you to recognise Rajat for the good he has done in the world, to give him the credit that he deserves for helping others and to take into account his efforts to improve the lives of millions of people.”
The judge released the letters on Friday night.
The court has received 200 letters so far, from company heads, academics, friends and family, including his wife and four adult daughters. His wife Anita wrote: “I know I have to accept the decision of the jury but I cannot but feel that who my husband is and what he stands for did not fully come out at the trial.”
It is common practice for US defence teams to organise letters of support for clients.
A jury convicted Gupta in June of tipping his friend and business associate, Galleon Group hedge fund founder Raj Rajaratnam, about Goldman's boardroom secrets during the financial crisis. He was found not guilty of divulging the quarterly earnings in January 2009 of Procter & Gamble, where he also served as a board member.
(With inputs from agencies)
