Merchants on Westport’s Main Street spent today trying to get back to normal after the storm. But damage was so severe in several of them, including Banana Republic, that they were closed until further notice with shoppers advised to shop at other branches. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com

Westporter Rajat Gupta, a former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. director, was sentenced today to two years in federal prison for leaking corporate secrets about the investment bank to a hedge-fund manager.
Rajat Gupta: gets less time than prosecutors requested. File photo

The prison term was imposed on Gupta, 63, by U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff in Manhattan, who also ordered him to pay a $5 million fine. The sentence was far less than the eight to 10 years that prosecutors had sought. But it was more than the punishment of probation and community service that Gupta’s lawyers had requested.

The once-revered business leader became the most prominent figure caught in the push against insider trading by prosecutors and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Gupta was ordered to report to prison on Jan. 8. He had faced a maximum sentence of 20 years for securities fraud and five years for conspiracy.

A Manhattan federal jury in June found him guilty of feeding tips about Goldman Sachs at the height of the 2008 financial crisis to hedge fund tycoon Raj Rajaratnam, his friend and business associate. (See WestportNow June 15, 2012)

It was friends and family night tonight in advance of Saturday’s official opening of David’s Tea shop at 135 Main St. between Brooks Brothers Women’s store and Jack Wills university outfitters.  The Westport store is the third in the United States for the Canadian-based company with other shops on Polk Street, San Francisco and Bleecker Street, New York. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Helen Klisser During for WestportNow.com

Westport’s unemployment rate in September was 6.1 percent, down from 6.4 per cent in August and 6.7 percent in July, the Connecticut Department of Labor said today.

The rate was the lowest since May when it was 6.0 percent. In June, it was 6.4 percent. The lowest this year was 5.3 percent in April.

The department said the number of Westport unemployed in September was 763, down from 821 in August. The September labor force in Westport numbered 12,532, down from 12,746, down from in August.

There were 11,769 employed in September, down from 11,925 employed in August, the department said. A year ago in September, Westport’s unemployment rate was 5.9 percent.

UPDATE (suspect released on bond) The former chief financial officer of a Westport hedge fund pleaded guilty today to a wire fraud charge stemming from his embezzlement of more than $1 million over almost six years from the firm where he was employed, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

Darrin Foster: worked at Westport hedge fund. N.Y. State Police photo

Darrin Foster, 46, formerly of the Bronx, N.Y., entered the plea before U.S. Magistrate Judge Joan G. Margolis in New Haven and faces a maximum 20 years imprisonment when he is sentenced on Jan. 7, prosecutors said.

Court document and statements made in court said Foster worked as the chief financial officer of a hedge fund based in Westport which they did not identify. Foster said in an Internet posting that he was CFO for Turkel Investments, 60 Church Lane, from 1993 to 2010.

As CFO, Foster had access to his employer’s bank accounts, was authorized to make business-related charges on the corporate American Express card and was entrusted to pay the American Express bill, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

Bill Gates and Kofi Annan are among several prominent businessmen and humanitarians asking a judge to show fairness when he sentences Westporter Rajat Gupta, a former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. board member, for his insider trading conviction later this month, according to published reports.
Rajat Gupta: Bill Gates, Koffi Annan wrote letters. File photo

The judge released the letters Friday ahead of the Oct. 24 sentencing in Manhattan federal court at the request of a reporter from the Wall Street Journal. Prosecutors and Gupta’s lawyers gave their consent, the judge said, according to the newspaper.

A jury convicted Gupta, 63, in June of tipping his friend and business associate, Galleon Group hedge fund founder Raj Rajaratnam, about Goldman’s boardroom secrets during the financial crisis. (See WestportNow June 15, 2012)

Gupta is the most influential and best-known corporate figure to be caught in a broad insider trading crackdown of the last four years. A mover in elite business and philanthropic circles for decades, he is also a former head of the McKinsey & Co. management consultancy.