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SEC Obtains $13.9 Million Penalty Against Former Goldman Sachs Board Member
Eliane Chavagnon
18 July 2013
The said yesterday it obtained a $13.9 million penalty against
former Goldman Sachs board member Rajat Gupta for illegally tipping corporate
secrets to former hedge fund manager Raj Rajaratnam. The order, issued by Jed Rakoff of the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, permanently bars
Gupta from acting as an officer or director of a public company and from associating with any broker, dealer, or investment advisor. The SEC alleged, in its
complaint filed in late 2011, that Gupta disclosed confidential information to
Rajaratnam about Berkshire Hathaway’s $5 billion investment in Goldman Sachs, along
with non-public details about Goldman Sachs’ financial results for the second
and fourth quarters of 2008. The US authority
said it previously acquired a “record $92.8 million penalty” against Rajaratnam for prior
insider trading charges. In a parallel case “arising
out of the same facts,” the SEC said it provided significant assistance to the
US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York in its criminal
prosecution of Gupta, who was found guilty on June 15, 2012, of one count of
conspiracy to commit securities fraud and three counts of securities fraud. Gupta was sentenced on
October 24, 2012, to two years in prision, followed by one year of supervised
release, and ordered to pay a $5 million criminal fine. The SEC added that it obtained
– on December 26 last year - a final judgment ordering Rajaratnam to disgorge
his share of the profits gained, and losses avoided, as a result of the insider
trading based on Gupta’s tips, plus prejudgment interest.