- Orphaned as teenager; born in Kolkata
- By mid 40s, he was CEO of McKinsey
- Retired in 2007 to take on roles with the United Nations and World Economic Forum
- Partnered on philanthropic work with Bill Gates
- Sat on the board of directors of five public companies
- By 2008, he was worth $100 million. Source
The turning point
- He didn’t want to be a mere centa-millionaire. He wanted to be a billionaire
- He sat on the board of directors of Goldman Sachs
- In 2008, Goldman was struggling due to the financial crisis.
- Warren Buffet planned to invest $5 billion into the bank to help it survive
- Rajat Gupta learned of this transaction before the public and saw it as an opportunity to make insane money
- 16 seconds after learning of the deal, he called a hedge fund manager, Raj Rajaratnam
- He immediately bought 175,000 shares of Goldman Sachs
- He made a quick $1 million when the Buffet-Goldman deal was announced
- Many such instances repeated. SEC claims Gupta’s insider tips led to $17 million in profits
- Gupta and Rajaratnam went to prison; having lost everything
Sources