This month’s Bloomberg Businessweek cover story on Rajat Gupta begins:
Although he would be described later by friends — in a conversation captured on an FBI wiretap — as being on the verge of “a massive implosion,” Rajat K. Gupta appeared relaxed as he greeted hundreds of guests on the manicured lawns of his estate in Westport, Conn., on the afternoon of June 21, 2008.
Raj Gupta
The occasion was the marriage of the eldest of his four daughters, Geetanjali, and it was a lavish affair — “the wedding of the decade,” one guest called it in an account published in the African Sun Times.
The invitations had been trimmed with gold, many of the guests flown in from around the globe. Photographs show a large Hindu temple garlanded with flowers, women in glittering saris, the bride’s father, in traditional kurta pajamas, mingling with his guests in the gardens outside his French Provincial-style mansion. It was an event that was in keeping not only with Gupta’s wealth but also with his corporate stature.
The former head of McKinsey and a trusted consigliere to chief executives around the world, he was a director of American Airlines, Procter & Gamble, and Goldman Sachs, and sat on the boards of the Rockefeller and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundations. At the time, he was also that rare businessman whose integrity was considered beyond reproach.
Yet if the Securities and Exchange Commission is to be believed, just 11 days before his daughter’s wedding celebration, Gupta had done something virtually no one who knew him could have imagined. According to the SEC, it was on the evening of June 10, 2008, that Gupta, in “a flurry” of phone conversations with Raj Rajaratnam, the founder of the Galleon Group of hedge funds, allegedly divulged Goldman Sachs’s still secret second-quarter earnings.
What Gupta did is a mystery to “06880.” It astonishes us, amazes us, and forces us to re-examine everything we thought we knew about Westport.
How could no one here have not known anything at all about the “wedding of the decade”?
To whom would he have divulged this and to what purpose.
Gee, I wonder who would have wanted to know Goldman’s financial condition in the summer of ’08. Duh.
Did you know about this grande wedding? I didn’t either. Woog is hurt that none of his far-ranging contacts informed him of this event back in 2008. Although he seems to be in many places at once, 2 or 3 simultaneous appearances is his limit. He relies on trusted sources like you and me to provide him with the inside scoop on those few items that have escaped his notice.
Indeed, Professor, beaten out by the “African Sun Times.” Even worse, no scoop on his “large Hindu temple.” Where is P&Z???? Or the Tacky Board??
Considering how successful the SEC was with Bernie, one can plan on the grandchild’s wedding before anything is done to the Raggin Raj.
It has been suggeted that our corpratists and other elites have us by
gargkeys (Pennsylvanese for garage keys). No change here, yet!
It is a hardly a suggestion by Professor Cornell West of Princeton. He accuses our President of being a Wall Street muppet and a patsy to the military industrial complex.
And what would you expect? Wall Street financed his election, and now that they are sitting on their hands Obama needs to make amends. Do you think it is shear coincidence that the US economy is lurching towards stagflation?
Jeez, he gave them a get out jail card with the regulatory legislature. What amends do they want?? Some more record bonuses??? Paulson back at Treasury??
At least Paulson paid his own taxes.
Yeah he also put Lehman and its how many employees down?
Lehman did themselves in. They had options but chose to ignore reality. I would have let them all sink. Stupidity should have consequences, and that goes for GM as well.
If you believe Helocopter Ben, the economy would have ended without TARP. Check out “Too Big To Fail” on HBO if nothing more than some great character acting.
I saw it. Good acting, good drama. It doesn’t get to the heart of the matter. When we tee it up, I will try and explain why I think all of the handwringing and “sky is falling” analysis was off base. Bernanke is obsessed with fears of another Great Depression, but fails to acknowledge the degree to which it was the direct result of inept monetary and fiscal policy.
There is a 1/2 hour trailer to the movie where a Harvard professor along with Sorkin/McLean try to elaborate on Bernanke’s fears. Pretty scary stuff. Just don’t talk during my backswing.