Insider Traitor

In a downcast attempt to play ventriloquist of the stock world, Rajat Gupta too easily marginalized the only obvious fact; Wall Street is no controlled marionette.  This sorry flouting now brings him even sorrier flogging.  Trying to trump Warren Buffett’s market move, the 5 minutes of quick wits has now fined him 5 billion dollars and the two years of jail term come more than just a quarterly loss. 

But call it nationalistic favoritism or sentimental sympathies; there is a sincere solicitousness that reaches out to Gupta. Perhaps it is the writhing childhood that he wriggled out from or the munificent philanthropic work all through his career, but each another look at the market mogul focuses attention to all the hard work hidden behind his wrinkles and that discomfiture in his eyes. Even the prosecution, Preet Bharara, could not help but froth a few words of mellow for the plutocrat before bleaching him pale, layer by layer.  

Gupta’s education is only meritorious, right from his engineering at IIT to attending Harvard and later joining McKinsey. His review, résumé, and records have always been in the sovereign of supreme. But it’s that phone conversation on September 23 that rammed the magnate from venerable to vulnerable.

It may have been the persistent peer pressure from Rajaratnam in trying to make Gupta reveal all that was behind the acquisition of Wachovia by Goldman but it certainly proved enough evidence through the wiretap. Acquiring inside information from Gupta on how Goldman was facing a huge loss in that quarter or Buffett’s expected move to invest in the company were like feeding fish to a seal. He eventually did the trick. 

Being friends with and helping honchos like Bill Clinton and Bill Gates, their testimonies, those 400 letters of plea, NGO support and anonymous petitions to go easy on Gupta expurgated the excise of his imprisonment. To what would have been a severe 10-year confinement is now two years of detention. 

The markets have closed for Gupta and now the only suit that he will be wearing for a while will be an orange one that comes without a tie.