US court to rehear Rajat Gupta's appeal against conviction

Rajat Gupta was convicted in 2012 of passing illegal tips about Goldman Sachs to Galleon Group founder Raj Rajaratnam.

India-born former Goldman Sachs director Rajat Gupta has convinced a US court to rehear an appeal to throw out his 2012 insider-trading conviction.

The US Second Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan on Thursday agreed to revisit its rejection of 67-year-old Gupta's appeal.

Gupta in the past too had filed several appeals, including to the US Supreme Court to overturn his conviction and a two-year prison term but the courts rejected his arguments and affirmed his sentence.

Gupta was convicted in 2012 of passing illegal tips about Goldman Sachs to Galleon Group founder Raj Rajaratnam while serving on the Goldman board.

Rajaratnam is serving an 11-year prison sentence after his 2011 conviction on insider-trading charges. Gupta and Rajaratnam were the most prominent people rounded up in the US government's crackdown on insider trading.

Gupta, who began serving prison term in June, 2014, was freed from Federal Medical Centre Devens, a federal correctional facility in Ayer, Massachusetts, on January 5 to serve out the rest of the sentence at home after receiving credit for good behaviour.

At the age of 45, Gupta became the first Indian CEO of the consulting giant McKinsey. He co-founded the prestigious Indian School of Business with fellow McKinsey executive Anil Kumar, who had pleaded guilty to insider trading and testified as a government witness against Gupta in his trial.