According to Rajat Gupta’s lawyer, there is “no evidence of any profit-sharing arrangements whatsoever” between his client and Raj Rajaratnam, both of whom are currently behind bars for insider trading.
Gary Naftalis, Gupta’s lawyer, made this claim yesterday during oral arguments in an appeals court case that Goldman Sachs Group Inc. shareholder James Mercer brought to recover Gupta’s alleged insider trading profits. U.S. District Court Judge Jed Rakoff dismissed Mercer’s suit in July 2012, saying Mercer failed to “plausibly allege that Gupta himself realized disgorgable profits” from tipping Rajaratnam.
In June, a jury convicted Gupta, a former Goldman board member and head of McKinsey & Co., of insider trading for passing confidential Goldman Sachs financial information to Galleon Group hedge fund co-founder Raj Rajaratnam. Rajaratnam was sentenced to 11 years in prison in October 2011 for insider trading. Rakoff sentenced Gupta to two years in prison in October 2012 for his insider trading crimes. His sentence started yesterday.
Read more about yesterday’s arguments on the Wall Street Journal Law Blog.
For more InsideCounsel coverage of Gupta’s troubles, read:
Rajat Gupta sentenced to 2 years for insider trading
Bill Gates, Kofi Annan, others ask judge to be fair in Gupta sentencing
Rajat Gupta convicted of insider trading, could face 16 years in prison
Gupta’s lawyer suggests others leaked info on P&G
Gupta lawyer says another Goldman employee leaked Apple, Intel secrets
U.S. expands insider-trading case against Gupta
Judge unlikely to throw out wiretap evidence in Gupta case
