India-born former Goldman Sachs director Rajat Gupta - currently serving a two-year jail term on insider trading charges - has filed a fresh plea in a US court seeking his conviction overturned as prosecutors failed to show he received personal benefits for passing information. The IIT and Harvard-educated 66-year-old former McKinsey head has asked the Manhattan federal court for an order “vacating his sentence, setting aside the judgment against him, and discharging him from prison.”
In the plea, Gupta has argued that the government did not provide evidence to prove he received personal benefits in exchange for passing confidential Goldman Sachs information to hedge fund founder and billionaire friend Raj Rajaratnam.
Convicted in 2012, Gupta began serving a two-year prison term on insider trading charges in June, 2014. His petition for a certiorari in the criminal case is pending before the supreme court. In the 21-page memorandum, Gupta’s lawyer Gary Naftalis said the trial jury was not properly instructed regarding insider trading tips and the benefit accrued to Gupta.
