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Gupta guilty of insider trading

New York, June 15 
Former Goldman Director Rajat Gupta, the poster boy of Indians at the Wall Street, was today found guilty of illegally tipping off his friend Raj Rajaratnam of confidential market information, in one of America's biggest insider trading cases.

After three weeks of trial, a US court held the 63-year-old guilty of providing insider information to Galleon hedge fund founder Rajaratnam, who was sentenced last year to 11 years in prison for insider trading. Gupta was found guilty by a federal court in Manhattan on four counts, out of six. The court will pronounce the sentence on October 18.

The conviction marks a tragic fall for the Kolkata-born financial wizard, who rose from a modest background to become a force to reckon with at the Wall Street. One of the jurors told the media it was a difficult decision for them but the evidence against him was overwhelming. Gupta was convicted on three counts of securities fraud and one count of conspiracy for passing confidential boardroom information about Goldman and Proctor & Gamble companies to the hedge fund that earned millions of dollars trading on his tips. He was acquitted of two counts of securities fraud. Reacting to the verdict by a 12-member jury, defence lawyer Gary Naftalis said he was disappointed that the jury convicted Gupta on four charges. — PTI