Mango Background -
Born in Maniktala in Kolkata, son of
a freedom fighter-turned-journalist father and a school teacher mother, Gupta
was orphaned at the age of 18. Ranking 15th in the IIT entrance
exam of 1966, Gupta was admitted to IIT Delhi on a scholarship from where he
did his B-Tech in mechanical engineering.
He was Offered a job at cigarette maker ITC Ltd, then about the most sought-after
employment for a young graduate, Gupta instead opted to go to Harvard Business
School, where he was a Baker Scholar, an honour bestowed on the top 5 percent
of the MBA class. He landed a job at consulting giant
McKinsey and quickly rose through the ranks.
In 1994, he was made the global head of the firm, the first non-American to hold that position. Gupta’s enviable resume boasted of job profiles as board members of some of the biggest US companies. After 10 years at McKinsey, Gupta joined the boards of many corporations and nonprofit organisations. In addition to Procter & Gamble and Goldman, he was a director of the AMR Corporation, the parent company of American Airlines.
The Rockefeller Foundation appointed
him a trustee; he was named an adviser to the former US president Bill Clinton
and Bill Gates, co-founder and chairman of Microsoft, on their global health
initiatives. He is also the co-founder of the Indian School of Business in
Hyderabad. Gupta was also appointed as special
advisor on management reform to then UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
Fall of Gupta - Down down the hill.
But then the climate changed and
Gupta found himself in the thick of an insider trading case. Gupta’s undoing began when his
billionaire friend Raj Rajaratnam, a Sri Lankan, was charged by federal
prosecutors of running of one of the biggest insider trading scams in US
history.
Gupta met Galleon hedge fund founder
Rajaratnam through another Indian-American McKinsey partner Anil Kumar. Rajaratnam had made an anonymous
contribution of a million dollars to the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad,
which Gupta had co-founded with Kumar. Together, they helped start New Silk
Route Partners, a private equity firm focused on investments in India.
The two became friends and
occasionally had lunch together, eating Indian takeout in Rajaratnam’s office
in Manhattan. Rajaratnam is currently serving an
11-year prison sentence for making millions of dollars in profits and avoiding
large scale losses thanks to confidential information he received.
Gupta was convicted on three counts
of securities fraud and one count of conspiracy for passing along 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. He was found guilty for information about the $5 billion
investment by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc,and of proving
information to Rajaratnam on 24 October 2008 about Goldman stock.
In one call, the day after the Buffett investment announcement, Rajaratnam
told trader Ian Horowitz: "I got a call at 3:58, right? ... Saying
something good might happen to Goldman." On October 24, 2008 Rajaratnam is caught on the wiretap telling portfolio
manager David Lau: "Um, now I, I heard yesterday from somebody who's on
the board of Goldman Sachs, that they are gonna lose $2 per share. The Street
has them making $2.50."
Prosecutors said Gupta had called Rajaratnam on October 23, 2008, only 23
seconds after a Goldman board meeting heard the firm was headed toward its
first quarterly loss ever as a public company.
Food for thought - Gupta
could spend as many as 20-25 years in jail. But for what.? Just for leaking the Insider information.! All these things happen generally in India. Have not heard till date anyone sentenced for it. As usual "Chalta hai attitude".
Courtesy - Wikipedia & Money control & Shree Nidhi.
Courtesy - Wikipedia & Money control & Shree Nidhi.
