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It’s judgment day for Rajat Gupta.
The fallen business titan, who once rubbed elbows with the likes of Deepak Chopra and Goldman CEO Lloyd Blankfein, will learn his fate when he is sentenced today at 2 p.m. in Manhattan federal court for insider trading.
Despite pleas for leniency from big-shot humanitarians such as Bill Gates and former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, Gupta is unlikely to be let off the hook with probation, experts said.
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“Going to trial and getting convicted always puts you in a much tougher situation,” said defense lawyer Mark Zauderer.
Indeed, no person who fought insider-trading charges brought by Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bharara and went to trial has escaped a prison term.
In June, a jury found Gupta, former head of global consulting firm McKinsey & Co., guilty on two counts of securities fraud and one count of conspiracy for stock tips he gave to hedge-fund honcho Raj Rajaratnam.
Rajaratnam, also convicted after a jury trial, is serving 11 years in Devens, a prison in Massachusetts.
Gupta was found guilty of telling Rajaratnam of Warren Buffett’s $5 billion investment in Goldman Sachs at the height of the financial meltdown. Gupta was a Goldman director at the time.
Bharara is asking for up to 10 years for Gupta, while Gupta’s defense team is arguing for probation.
“I know most personally that the poor of the world have a profoundly capable and articulate advocate in Rajat Gupta,” said Gates’ letter to Judge Jed Rakoff.
Gupta’s lawyer, Gary Naftalis, has even requested that he be allowed to serve his sentence in rural villages in Rwanda where he can help the sick and needy.