Rajat Gupta Not Sweating This Insider Trading Business

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As you may have heard, yesterday morning, former McKinsey managing director Rajat Gupta was charged with insider trading. Is he worried he might be headed to jail in the not too distant future? Not in the slightest. Because 1) As previously mentioned, that time he took part in a fall 2008 conference call with GS management and fellow board members and after hanging up, made himself wait exactly twenty three seconds before getting Raj Rajaratnam on the horn with the details? Wasn't with the intent for the Galleon manager to actually trade on the material non-public information Rajat was sharing. And 2) Even if a court of law should interpret the evidence otherwise, someone's got his back.

Mr. Gupta believed it was auspicious to surrender on Diwali, a major holiday popularly known as the "Indian festival of lights," according to childhood friend Anand "Bill" Julka, who said he has spoken recently with Mr. Gupta. "He believes he is innocent and the gods will protect him if humans fail," Mr. Julka said.

It's all good.

[WSJ]

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The Universe Has Good News And Less Good News For Rajat Gupta

The less good news is that a jury found the former McKinsey executive guilty on three counts of securities fraud and one count of conspiracy for passing material non-public information to his friend*, convicted insider trader Raj Rajaratnam. The good news: 1. Rajat could go to jail for twenty years but probably won't ("Gupta faces up to 20 years in prison on each of the fraud charges and up to five years for the conspiracy charge. But his sentence is likely to be significantly lower under federal guidelines.") 2. Sentencing is scheduled for October 18 so he's got the whole summer and then some into a Zen place about going to prison. Also! Plenty of time to do all those things he was too busy for when he was working. This is gonna be his time. Time to taste the fruits and let the juices drip down his chin. The summer of Rajat! Gupta Found Guilty Of Insider Trading [WSJ] *Friend Rajat's ass.