Westport resident Rajat K. Gupta, the former Goldman Sachs and Procter & Gamble director accused of leaking confidential information about those companies, is suing the accuser – the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Rajat Gupta: “denies all allegations.” File photo
The Wall Street Journal reported today that Gupta, who lives in Westport’s Greens Farms area, has filed suit against the agency because it connected him to the Galleon insider trading case when it filed civil charges against him on March 1. (See WestportNow March 1, 2011)
Gupta, a former McKinsey chief, “denies all allegations of wrongdoing and ‘stands ready to mount a defense against each and every one of the commission’s charges,’” according to the report.
The regulator filed civil administrative charges against Gupta in connection to the government’s fraud case against Raj Rajaratnam. His trial is currently under way in Manhattan.
The SEC alleges that when he was a Goldman Sachs board member, Gupta tipped Rajaratnam on Goldman earnings and the $5 billion Berkshire Hathaway investment, as well as other material, non-public information about the bank, which Rajaratnam then allegedly traded on.
Gupta’s lawsuit said the SEC “unfairly and unconstitutionally” singles him out.
The lawsuit, filed today in federal court in Manhattan, alleges that the SEC’s administrative action would deny him his right to a jury trial and other procedural safeguards available if the case had been brought in a civil court.
Earlier today, Bloomberg reported that wiretapped calls between Gupta and Raj, in which Gupta tells the Galleon founder confidential information about Goldman considering purchase of AIG and Wachovia back in 2008, were not enough to justify criminal charges.
