Getting his groove back? Out of jail, Rajat Gupta receives welcome bash from India Inc

Analjit Singh threw a bash for Gupta at his Delhi residence, with many prominent Indian business leaders in attendance

Former global managing director of McKinsey and Co and Goldman Sachs board member Rajat Gupta returned to India last week after completing his two-year prison term in the US, reported the Economic Times.

Gupta, the erstwhile poster boy for the success of the Indian community in the US, came to his motherland on what the news report said his friends called a "soul searching" mission. 

 Gupta was convicted in 2012 of passing confidential boardroom information to now jailed hedge fund founder Raj Rajaratnam.

He, completed his jail time in March 2016, weeks after a US court agreed to rehear his appeal to throw out his 2012 insider-trading conviction, according to his record at the Federal Bureau of Prisons. 

While Gupta struggles to have his insider-trading conviction overturned, he received a warm reception from his friends during his trip to India.  

According to ET, Analjit Singh, the founder and chairman of Max Healthcare and Max Bupa Health Insurance Company Limited and executive-chairman of Max Life Insurance, threw a private party for Gupta at his residence in the national capital on November 9. 

Bharti Enterprises Founder and Chairman Sunil Mittal, Punj Lloyd Group Chairman and Managing Director Atul Punj, Dabur India Ltd Chairman Anand Burman, CK Birla Group Chairman Chandra Kant Birla, and KKR India CEO Sanjay Nayyar were among the rich and the powerful who attended Singh's bash. 

"He has served time for an offence which he continues to challenge in courts. I am sure Rajat will find a renewed purpose to use his skills. He drew strength from Bhagwad Gita through his difficult time which,I hope, will shape his future," Mittal told the financial daily.

Climbing back up the ladder

In January this year, the New York Times had reported the Gupta was released from a federal correctional facility on January 5, 2016, to serve the rest of his prison sentence at home in Manhattan. 

Gupta, the report said, was eager to get back to his old world, despite the fact that till the completion of his sentence, he was, in effect, required to stay confined to his apartment for the most part and wear an ankle bracelet. In fact, Gupta was still a federal inmate at that time. However, this did not deter him from getting back to work, which he started out of the offices of Purnendu Chatterjee, an old friend from McKinsey.

Chatterjee, the report added, was one of Gupta's most "passionate defenders" when he was convicted of insider trading. 

His recent India visit seems to also be about touching base which former friends and colleagues, and testing the waters so to say. 

Ranjit Pandit, a former colleague of Gupta's from McKinsey and currently a Reliance Jio board member, also held a dinner for Gupta in Mumbai last weekend, the ET report said. 

Speaking on the condition of anonymity, one of the guests from the party told ET: "Gupta is testing the waters. He is desperate to get back to his normal life. He has not been to India for about five years now. So testing waters, getting feedback is topmost in his agenda. He's hankering to regain his social positioning."

Overturning his conviction

Getting back his corporate groove has been on Gupta's mind since his release, and it goes hand in hand with his reported desire to tap back into his glory days. 

Early in February this year, the US Second Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan agreed to revisit its rejection of Gupta's appeal to throw out his 2012 insider-trading conviction. 

According to a Fox Business report, the overturning of the Newman insider trading conviction, which involved hedge fund managers Todd Newman and Anthony Chiasson, by the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit might have given Gupta a chance at "restoring his reputation and dignity".  

Gupta’s lawyer has successfully argued in front of the Appeals Court that Gupta did not receive any tangible benefit from Rajaratnam, the report said. 

According to media reports, in May this year, Gupta filed an exhaustive brief in the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, arguing that the judgement of the Manhattan district court finding him guilty of insider trading "should be reversed" and his "conviction should be vacated".

Gupta’s appeal came on the back of a landmark ruling by the Manhattan appeals court that for an insider trading conviction prosecutors must show that a defendant received a personal benefit for passing illegal tips.

However, Gupta's road to vindication is likely to face hurdles. In response to Gupta's submission in the court, US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Preet Bharara said that Gupta’s plea should be rejected as his conduct of repeatedly tipping his business partner Raj Rajaratnam with material non-public information in "ways that furthered Gupta and Rajaratnam’s shared financial interests" remains "criminal". Bharara added that Gupta was "not actually innocent".