Business

Gates, Annan urge leniency for Gupta

Bill Gates and Kofi Annan told a US judge that former Goldman Sachs Director Rajat Gupta deserves leniency when he’s sentenced in 12 days for insider trading.

Gates, co-founder of Microsoft, and Annan, a former UN secretary-general, were among more than 200 backers to urge leniency for Gupta, citing his lifetime of good deeds. He will be sentenced on Oct. 24 for leaking stock tips to hedge-fund manager Raj Rajaratnam. The letters were made public yesterday by US District Judge Jed Rakoff.

“I urge you to recognize Rajat for the good that he has done in this world, to give him the credit that he deserves for helping others, and to take into account his effort to improve the lives of millions of people,” Annan said in his letter.

“I wanted to add my voice to those of other friends and colleagues of Rajat Gupta who are writing to you in order to round out Rajat’s profile,” Gates said.