According to the New York Observer, when Rajat Gupta was
sentenced to two years in prison last Wednesday, the government finally nailed
to the wall the largest scalp it has taken to date in its multiyear
investigation of rampant insider trading on Wall Street. He wasn’t the
richest—that would be erstwhile hedge fund manager Raj Rajaratnam, the man to
whom Mr. Gupta was convicted of passing confidential information he learned
while serving on the boards of Goldman Sachs and Procter & Gamble. But he’s
certainly the highest-profile person to be convicted of such charges since
everybody’s favorite reprobate homemaker, Martha Stewart. Like Ms. Stewart, Mr.
Gupta got off easy—two years instead of the eight to 10 that the government had
asked for. But that’s the way the world works, people. Get used to it.
Mr. Gupta plans to appeal, of course. Which is one reason
why his statement before U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff was so predictably
aggravating: he expressed remorse—albeit only for the effect the trial has had
on those close to him—and declined to make any admission of guilt. It was the
classic, “I’m sorry if what I said offended you,” non-apology apology. No
matter. Like my longtime nemesis Conrad Black—the disgraced former newspaper
mogul who served two years for fraud yet still feels compelled to absurdly
proclaim his innocence every chance he gets—no one really gives a damn, or
believes a word he says. They both broke the law and were convicted for their
crimes. Period.
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