 "Rajat Gupta to finish remainder of prison sentence at home: NYT report")
Former Goldman Sachs Group Inc director Rajat Gupta was released from a federal correctional facility on January 5, 2016, to serve out the rest of his prison sentence at home, The New York Times reported Thursday.
The New York Times said Gupta, once a leading light of both the Indian American as well as the global financial community, will spend the rest of his two-year sentence at his apartment in Manhattan’s Century building that overlooks Central Park.
Gupta, the former head of consulting firm McKinsey & Co, was convicted in 2012 in an insider trading case that originated with hedge fund Galleon Group’s founder Raj Rajaratnam and sentenced to a two-year prison term in Massachusetts.
Gupta was found guilty of passing on confidential information, which he was privy to through his Board position at Goldman Sachs, to Rajaratnam, a friend and one-time business associate.
Gupta’s prison term began in June, 2014.
According to The New York Times, Gupta will remain a federal inmate until March 13, 2016, and will be confined to his apartment. He will also be required to wear an ankle bracelet that monitors his movements. While he can undertake some outings, such as going shopping or for a haircut, he will continue to be barred from social events, such as meeting friends for dinner, the NYT reported.
Gupta applied last year for an early discharge from the federal correctional facility he was serving his sentence in.
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Speaking to The New York Times, Joel Sickler, founder of a company that advises inmates on prison stays, said, ”Under the Second Chance Act, the Bureau of Prisons is authorised to send an inmate to what is called community confinement for re-entry purposes — as long as the individual poses no threat.” Sickler added, “If you have need for re-entry services, you go to a halfway house, but absent that need, you go to home confinement.”
Sickler also explained that an inmate in good standing was eligible for home confinement for 10% of his sentence or up to six months.
Gupta, The New York Times reveals, is already working out of the offices of Purnendu C Chatterjee — an old friend from McKinsey.
According to the same report, Chatterjee was one of Gupta’s most ardent defenders when he was convicted over insider trading charges. Chatterjee even went as far as doubting the basis for the verdict against Gupta and wrote a letter to the court on Gupta’s behalf before his sentencing.
Many white-collar criminals like Gupta seek early release so they can go back to work and pay off the financial obligations they face in the form of fines and penalties, the report says.
As per the NYT, Gupta faces a $13.9 million penalty imposed as part of the US Securities and Exchange Commission's parallel insider trading case against him, in addition to the $ 5 million fine in the criminal case brought by the New York Attorney General’s office and $6.2 million restitution to Goldman Sachs.
Gupta, The New York Times says, will also have to pay Goldman for his legal fees, estimated to be more than $40 million, as part of a pre-trial agreement if he was found guilty of insider trading.
The report adds that Gupta’s former associates say he is in good spirits since returning to his apartment and that he looks back to his prison term philosophically.