Rajat Gupta's prison term to begin June 17

US supreme court rejects his bail plea

Rajat Gupta, the former Goldman Sachs Group Inc director found guilty of insider trading, must report to prison next week after a US Supreme Court justice rejected a last-ditch request.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, making no comment, on Thursday refused to let Gupta remain free on bail while he appeals his conviction. Gupta is scheduled to surrender to prison authorities on June 17 to begin a two-year sentence.

Gupta, who is also a former McKinsey & Co managing partner, is the highest-profile executive convicted in a US crackdown on insider trading at hedge funds. He was found guilty in 2012 of passing illegal tips to billionaire Galleon Group LLC co-founder Raj Rajaratnam.

Gupta argued in papers filed with the court this week that there’s no risk he will flee and that he’s likely to win his appeal based on legal errors made in his case.

A federal appeals court in New York affirmed his conviction in March. The appeals court is considering his request to rehear the case. If that court refuses, Gupta says he will seek Supreme Court review.

Gupta, 65, said that if the Supreme Court agrees to intervene after he reports to prison, he will have served at least half the two-year sentence before his case is decided.

Emergency matters

Gupta won’t resubmit his application to a different justice, said his Supreme Court attorney, Seth Waxman. Although that is an option under the Supreme Court’s rules, it is rarely successful. Waxman declined to comment on the decision by Ginsburg, who handles emergency matters from the federal courts in New York.

Gupta claimed wiretaps used in the case against him were improperly admitted. He also argued that he should have been permitted to present evidence of his good character to the jury.

Rajaratnam was separately convicted and is serving an 11-year sentence in a federal medical prison in Ayer, Massachusetts. He is seeking Supreme Court review, and the court may act as soon as next week on his case.

His brother, Rengan Rajaratnam, begins trial on criminal insider trading charges June 17, the day Gupta is scheduled to begin serving his prison sentence.