Rajat Gupta convicted for insider trading

The verdict is in.

Reuters says:

A federal court jury in Manhattan found Gupta guilty of three counts of securities fraud and one count of conspiracy

Bloomberg reports:

Securities fraud carries a maximum prison sentence of 20 years. Conspiracy carries a five-year maximum prison sentence. He will remain free on bail until his sentencing on Oct. 18.

. From the New York Times:

After the verdict was read, Mr. Gupta, 63, remained stoic, his face expressionless. Just behind Mr. Gupta, his wife, Anita, buried her head in her hands, leaning against a bench in the courtroom. His four daughters, who had squeezed into the front row of the spectators’ gallery each day during the trial, loudly sobbed and consoled one another. Several jurors were crying as they left the courtroom.
Jed S. Rakoff, the judge in the case, set sentencing for Oct. 18 and said he was inclined to set Mr. Gupta is free on bail until then.
Mr. Gupta faces a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison, but will likely serve less time than that. Mr. Rajaratnam, the former head of the Galleon Group hedge fund who was convicted of orchestrating a huge insider trading conspiracy last year, is serving an 11-year jail term

We'll update this post as and when we have more information.

From our past coverage:
Rajat Gupta crossed the fine line, Rajat Gupta Does Not Take Witness Stand; Daughter Testifies Instead, Rajat Gupta's Last Card.

Updates:

The Wall Street Journal has a cool interactive graphic up here.

Our colleagues at Firstpost report:

Gupta’s lawyers Naftalis said that his client would likely appeal the verdict.
“We believe the facts of this demonstrate that Mr Gupta is innocent and we continue to believe he is innocent of all the charges,” said Naftalis. “This is only round one of this matter.”

Our colleagues at Forbes have Mr Naftalis's statement:

"We are pleased that the jury acquitted Mr. Gupta on a number of significant charges, including the only charge related to Procter and Gamble. We are obviously disappointed in the jury’s verdict with regard to the other counts, which are based on the hearsay wiretaps of Mr. Rajaratnam.
"We believe the facts of this case demonstrate that Mr. Gupta is innocent of all these charges, and that he has always acted with honesty and integrity. This is only Round One. We will be moving to set aside the verdict and will if necessary appeal the conviction."

The web site friendsofrajat.com/ had no updates as of 2a.m., IST, 16th June 2012. That Mr Gupta has many friends and supporters is clear from the testimonials on the site.

The thoughts and opinions shared here are of the author.