US apex court denies former Goldman Sachs director Rajat Gupta's appeal against lifetime ban

New York: The US Supreme Court has denied an appeal by India-born former Goldman Sachs Director Rajat Gupta, who had challenged a ruling by a lower court permanently banning him from from serving as an officer or director of a public company.

In the Supreme Court order issued on Monday, Gupta's certiorari was denied, in effect keeping intact the ruling made by the US Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit in 2014 which had imposed a permanent injunction prohibiting the former McKinsey head from serving as an officer or director of a public company, associating with brokers, dealers, or investment advisors, and further violating securities law.

The IIT-educated Gupta is currently serving a two-year prison term on insider tradiprison in Ayer, Massachusetts. The ruling by the Supreme Court was made in a parallel civil insider trading case brought against Gupta by federal regulator Securities and Exchange Commission.

A three-judge bench of the Appeals Court had in June last year denied Gupta's plea to overturn the decision of the district court that had permanently barred him from serving as an officer or director of a public company and associating with brokers, dealers, or investment advisors.

The appeals court had also upheld the decision by the district court that Gupta had to pay USD 13.9 million as penalty in the US Securities and Exchange Commission's insider trading case. The USD 13.9 million civil fine was not at issue in the Supreme Court appeal and Gupta's appeal of his criminal conviction is still pending at the Supreme Court.

Gupta has also been ordered to pay a USD five million fine in the criminal case and USD 6.2 million restitution to Goldman Sachs.

In denying Gupta's appeal, the second circuit court had said it finds "no abuse of discretion" in the imposition of injunctive relief and civil penalties on him by the district court.

"We have considered Gupta's remaining arguments and find them to be without merit. Accordingly, we affirm the judgment of the district court," the three-judge panel had said.

Gupta had been fighting with all his might to reverse his insider trading conviction and avoid going to jail. He began his prison sentence after fighting a protracted legal battle to clear his name in one of the biggest insider trading schemes in US history.