Rajat Gupta had a great career at McKinsey & Company and he did a lot of philanthropy. It is this support of good causes that has helped him secure letters from powerful people to the U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff who tends to be rather lenient. Still, Rakoff will have to hand down an appropriate sentencing to discourage others.
There will be plenty of top-level executives watching the proceedings as Gupta was a major corporate figure. Mr. Gupta is in this position as he passed on some tips to Raj Rajaratnam who was sentenced last year to 11 years in prison for insider trading at his hedge fund the Galleon Group. A prison term isn't the only way that Gupta could pay as illustrated in the Rajaratnam case where the latter was fined $92.8 million because of his immense fortune.
