Convict Rajat Gupta’s fresh plea against verdict dismissed

US District Judge Jed Rakoff, who had presided over Gupta’s 2012 trial and sentenced him to two years’ imprisonment, said in his ruling that even though Gupta is a “man of many laudable qualities”, the “hard fact remains” that he committed a serious crime.

In a memorandum submitted last month in the US District Court in Manhattan late last month, Gupta, 66, had sought a “certificate of appealability” that would have enabled him to appeal Rakoff’s ruling. In the ruling the judge had disagreed with Gupta’s claim that there was “insufficient” evidence at trial of him receiving “personal benefits” in exchange for the insider tips he allegedly passed on to now-jailed billionaire hedge fund founder Raj Rajaratnam.

Denying Gupta’s motion for a certificate of appealability, Rakoff said, “the Court has considered Gupta’s other arguments for issuing a certificate and finds them without merit. “As the Court noted at sentencing, Gupta is a man of many laudable qualities, and his superb attorneys have energetically pursued his defence,” Rakoff said. “But the hard fact remains that he committed a serious crime, the overwhelming proof of which has readily survived every challenge. No purpose would be served by further proceedings,” Rakoff said in his order issued in Manhattan federal court on Wednesday.

Manhattan’s top federal prosecutor Preet Bharara opposed Gupta’s appeal, saying in court  papers that his challenge to the verdict should now end as there is “no doubt” that he stood to benefit financially from his illegal tips to Rajaratnam. Gupta, convicted on three counts of  securities fraud and one of conspiracy to commit securities fraud, is serving his prison term at  a Massachusetts facility.