US apex court denies Rajat Gupta's appeal against lifetime ban

India-born former Goldman Sachs director Rajat Gupta's appeal challenging his permanent ban from acting as an officer or director of a public company has been rejected by the US Supreme Court.
The apex court yesterday denied Gupta's certiorari, in effect keeping intact a US Court of Appeals ruling last year.
The lower court had permanently prohibited Gupta from serving as an officer or director of a public company.
In addition to that, he was also prohibited from associating with brokers, dealers, or investment advisers, and further violating securities law.
The IIT-educated 66-year-old former McKinsey head is currently serving a two-year prison term on insider trading.

The Supreme Court's ruling was made in a parallel civil insider trading case brought against Gupta by federal regulator Securities and Exchange Commission.

A three-judge bench of the Appeals Court had in June last year denied Gupta's plea to overturn the district court's ruling that permanently barred him from serving as an officer of a public company.
The appeals court had upheld another district court order that Gupta pay USD 13.9 million as penalty in the Securities and Exchange Commission's insider trading case.
The USD 13.9 million civil fine was not at issue in the Supreme Court appeal and Gupta's appeal of his criminal conviction is still pending at the Supreme Court.

Gupta has also been ordered to pay a USD 5 million fine in the case and USD 6.2 million restitution to Goldman Sachs.
In denying Gupta's appeal, the second circuit court had said it finds "no abuse of discretion" in the imposition of injunctive relief and civil penalties on him by the district court.
"We have considered Gupta's remaining arguments and find them to be without merit. Accordingly, we affirm the judgment of the district court," the three-judge panel had said.
Gupta had been fighting with all his might to reverse his insider trading conviction and avoid going to jail. He began his prison sentence after fighting a protracted legal battle to clear his name in one of the biggest insider trading schemes in US history.

Gupta has been assigned to the minimum security satellite camp near federal prison, where his former business associate hedge fund founder Raj Rajaratnam is currently serving his 11-year jail term on insider trading conviction.
Gupta was convicted in 2012 after a jury trial for passing confidential information on Goldman Sachs to Rajaratnam just minutes after he learned about them at the financial giant's board meetings.