Nadeem F. Paracha
Updated at2013-10-10 16:47:58
In September 2012, a 15-year-old school girl from Pakistan’s Swat valley was reported to have been shot in the face and head by a Taliban activist.
The attack caused outrage around the world and the news was given widespread coverage in the local and international media.
Malala was reported to have barely survived after doctors in Pakistan and then England performed multiple surgeries on her face and head.
Today Malala lives in the UK and has repeatedly vowed to continue working for the cause of women’s education in Pakistan, especially in those areas of the country where extremists and militant outfits are said to have been blowing up girls’ schools.
But this is just one side of the whole story. The narrative about what really happened on the day Malala was allegedly shot has mostly been weaved by the Western media.
In April this year, Dawn.com sent a group of its most seasoned reporters to Swat to undertake an intensive five-month investigation of the event. Their collective findings unearthed a series of some stunning disclosures (with evidence) that are bound to affectively challenge the mainstream narrative of the Malala story.
The following are the major findings of the investigation:
• Malala was not born in Swat and neither is she a Pushtun. A respected medical doctor in Swat, Imtiaz Ali Khanzai, who runs a private hospital and clinic in Swat told our reporters that he has a DNA report that proves that Malala is not Pushtun.
Showing us the report, he said he extracted Malala’s DNA when as a child she visited his clinic (with her parents) complaining of an earache.
“After she was supposedly shot last year, I remembered I had a bottle where I had kept some of her earwax,” the doctor explained. “Collecting earwax of my patients is a hobby of mine,” he added.
He went on to claim that according to the DNA, Malala is a Caucasian, most probably from Poland.
After the discovery, the doctor called Malala’s father and told him that he knew who Malala was. “
“He was stunned and began to stutter,” the doctor said. “He pleaded that I did not make my findings public. I told him I wouldn’t but only if he told me the whole truth.”
Malala’s father told the doctor that Malala’s real name was Jane and she was born in Hungary in 1997. Her real biological parents were Christian missionaries who, after traveling to Swat in 2002, left Malala as a gift to her adopted parents after they secretly converted to Christianity.
Dr. Khanzai’s DNA extraction kit
Dr. Khanzai’s DNA extraction kit
When our reporters asked the doctor why he was revealing Malala’s real identity now, he said he was convinced that Malala was planted in Swat by anti-Pakistan elements.
He then added that he can also prove that the young man who shot her was not a Pushtun either. “I have his earwax as well,’ he claimed.
After extracting the DNA of the shooter’s earwax, the doctor discovered that he was probably from Italy. He then invited our reporters to look at the man’s earwax under a microscope.
“Those tiny yellow bits that you see in the wax are bits of pizza,” he explained.
The doctor told us that in January 2012 he emailed his findings to some senior members of Pakistan’s intelligence agency, the ISI.
After a few days his clinic was raided by the police. He was in Saudi Arabia at the time collecting earwax samples of some members of the Saudi royal family. His staff at the clinic was harassed by the police who wanted to know where he kept the earwax samples.
Pizza?
Pizza?
In June this year, the doctor was visited by a young ISI officer who apologised to him about the police raid and told him that the ISI were well aware of Malala’s real identity. After much coaxing on our part, the doctor eventually gave us the cell phone number of the ISI officer.
However, the officer kept refusing to talk to us but finally relented on the condition that we refer to him as ‘Master X’.
Master X met one of our reporters at an abandoned girls’ school in lower Swat. To hide his face, the officer wore a Spiderman mask.
Talking to the reporter he said: “This had to come out one day. And I just couldn’t let myself continue to keep such a dangerous secret hidden. I am a true patriot.”
He then added: ‘My father once told me, ‘Peter, with great power comes great responsibility’.’
The officer
The officer
His revelations led us to our next shocking discovery (with evidence):
• Malala’s shooting was staged by intelligence agencies. The officer told the reporter that the whole shooting incident was a stunt planned by Pakistani and US agencies to pave the way for the Pakistani army’s invasion of North Waziristan: “It was all a drama,” he explained. “It was staged so the Pakistan army would have an excuse to invade North Waziristan.”
When asked why he was using the word ‘invasion’ when North Waziristan was a part of Pakistan, the officer replied: “North Waziristan is an autonomous Islamic Emirates. It has been like that for centuries. But our history books distort the facts and teach our children that it is part of Pakistan. The area has unimaginable amounts of oil, gold, copper, silver, bronze, coal, diamonds, gas and fossilised dinosaur remains underneath its rugged grounds. That’s what the Americans are after.”
Our reporter then asked whether he had any evidence to prove his claim.
The officer pulled out a few photographs and showed it to the reporter. The photographs showed a few bones. “Dinosaur bones,” he explained.
He added: “These were excavated in North Waziristan by the archaeology division of the Taliban. After they were studied by the geology division of the Taliban, it had traces of oil, gold, copper, silver, bronze, coal, diamonds and gas.”
One of the photographs showing dinosaur bones excavated from the grounds of North Waziristan.
One of the photographs showing dinosaur bones excavated from the grounds of North Waziristan.
What about the evidence proving that the shooting was staged by American and Pakistani agencies?
Pulling out a piece of paper, the officer said: “This is the evidence. It was decoded by the Taliban’s division of quantum physics.”
The paper had screen shots of a brief exchange of tweets on Twitter between one ‘Lib Fish’ and ‘Oil Gul.’
The officer said that Lib Fish was actually a CIA operative based in Qatar and Oil Gul was an ISI sleuth on Twitter based in Lahore. The exchange was intercepted and decoded by one ‘Tsunami Mommy’ who is based in Swabi in the Khyber Pakhtunkwa province in Pakistan and is an engineer by profession.
We are publishing the Twitter exchange between Lib Fish and Oil Gul that was provided to us by the officer:
@LibFish Yo, @OilGul, how goes life?
@OilGul Life’s kool, mate.
@LibFish @OilGul Any chance of visiting Qatar soon?
@OilGul @LibFish Haha. Soon after I’m done with my O level exams. They suck.
@LibFish @OilGul Haha. Yea, they do, don’t they?
The officer told us that Tsunami Mommy jumped in after he realised what was taking place:
@Tsunami_Mommy Agents! I know what you two do. Anti-Islam anti-Pakistan bastaaas. @OilGul @LibFish
@OilGul Dude, who are you? Why are you trolling us?
@Tsunami_Mommy Shup ut fake liberalz fascist agents IK is best you bastaaas NA250 rigging 1 billion fake liberalz votes anti-Pakistan anti-Islam inshallah Nya Bakistan tabdeeli …
The officer said he used famous Pakistani linguist and WW-II code-breaker, Mustansar Hussain Tarar, to decode the suspicious Twitter exchange and that is when he discovered that the CIA and the ISI were planning the fake shooting.
He also gave the reporter the manuscript of the book that Tsunami Mommy was writing on the shooting after piecing together the evidence (with evidence) provided by the doctor, the officer and Mustansar Hussain Tarar.
The book’s title will be ‘A Fake Shooting of a Fake Liberal by a Fake Liberal, You Bastaaas.’
Below is the brief summary of what the manuscript claims:
October 1, 1997: Malala is born to Hungarian parents in Budapest and named Jane.
October 4, 2002: The parents are recruited by the CIA and given a crash course in evangelical Christianity, hypnosis and karate.
October 7, 2003: They land in Pakistan and head for Swat posing as NGO workers. They get in touch with a low-level ISI agent, and convert the family to Christianity, leaving Jane with him. He changes her name to Malala and instils in her the fear of Jesus.
October 30, 2007: Malala starts to write a blog that asks the militants of Swat to put down their weapons, pick up a Bible and boogie.
October 21, 2011: The militants request her to stop writing her evangelical blogs and finish her homework instead.
October 1, 2012: CIA recruits a Pashtu speaking Italian-American loner (Robert) living in New York and gives him a crash course in gun-slinging and acting.
October 7, 2012: CIA shares plan of Malala’s fake shooting with the ISI. The ISI agrees and gives Malala and her parents a briefing.
October 11, 2012: The Italian-America arrives in Swat posing as an Uzbek homeopath.
The fake gunman moments before taking a flight to Pakistan.
The fake gunman moments before taking a flight to Pakistan.
October 12, 2012: Robert is given a gun that is loaded with blanks. He intercepts Malala’s school van and fires blanks at her. She pretends to be hit and squeeze opens a small pack of Mitchel’s Tomato Ketchup she is hiding in one of her hands and rubs the ketchup all over her face. A fake ambulance suddenly arrives on the scene and takes away Malala. The world is told that she was shot in the face and head by a Taliban fanatic.
The story that ran in the media quoted Malala’s friends in the van saying that the gunman asked for Malala and then shot her.
But the officer shared with us the testimony of one of Malala’s friends that was repressed by vested interests in the media.
According to the testimony, a man stopped the van and shouted (in Pashtu), ‘who is Jane … I mean, Jeanette … no, Alberta Joan Lucas?’
The girls looked at each other in confusion and the driver was about to drive away when the gunman pulled out a gun and started to shout: ‘Uno momento, un momento …’
Then looking at a girl he asked: ‘You lookin’ at me?’ At which Malala threw down her school bag and shouted (in Italian): ‘No you idiot, I AM lookin’ at you. Malala, Malala, remember? Fool.’
Saying, ‘Oh,’ he shot her (with the blanks).
• The girl that the media was shown in the hospital was not Malala. The officer shared with us some photographs to prove this. He first showed us a video (on his iPhone) that he shot hours after the shooting. It shows Malala joyfully bungee jumping on the hills near River Swat.
Malala bungee jumping hours after she was allegedly ‘shot.’
Malala bungee jumping hours after she was allegedly ‘shot.’
Then the officer informed us that the doctor had the earwax samples of the girl in the hospital. When we contacted the doctor again and asked what the samples proved he said that the DNA he extracted from the sample suggests that the girl in the hospital was not a girl at all. It was a pillow.
He said he had managed to sneak into the operating room (posing as a postman) and while he was secretly drawing out earwax from the girl’s ears, he managed to take a picture of the girl with his Nokia phone.
‘I came back and was shocked when I enlarged the picture,’ he said.
He then gave us a printout of the picture …
We believe there is now enough evidence for Pakistan and the international community to have a serious re-look at the Malala story and demand that the United Nations orders a full investigation into the matter.
========================================================================================
Malala Inc: Global operation surrounds teenage activist
By AFP
Published: October 11, 2013
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Malala Yousufzai at the UN General Assembly. PHOTO: AFP
LONDON: Teenage activist Malala Yousafzai has become a formidable force for rights in the year since the Taliban shot her, but an equally formidable public relations operation has helped her spread her message.
The 16-year-old campaigner for girls’ education has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, addressed the UN, published an autobiography and been invited to tea with Queen Elizabeth II, achieving a level of fame more like that of a movie star.
On Thursday she won the EU’s prestigious Sakharov human rights prize Thursday, drawing a fresh threat of murder by the Taliban.
But Malala and her family have help when it comes to balancing her recovery and her schooling with the demands of being a young stateswoman in demand from the international media.
One of the world’s biggest public relations firms, Edelman, has a team working on her behalf while politicians, journalists and book publishers are making her into something of a global brand.
Those close to Malala reject claims from some in Pakistan that she is being manipulated.
“I was worried about all the expectations placed on her before I met her,” Jonathan Yeo, a British painter whose portrait of Malala went on display in the National Portrait Gallery in London in September, told AFP.
“A lot of people wouldn’t want to deal with it, or have the presence of mind to deal with it, or be swayed by the things around it,” said Yeo.
“But my worries that any of those things might be going on were immediately reassured by her and her family.”
He added: “There’s no one with any ulterior motives, all the money is going to charity, there is no political agenda, she is still devoted to her country and still religious.”
A source who worked with the family told AFP: “From what I have seen, although she is only 16 it is very much driven by her personally.”
Malala had already been in the public eye for years before a Taliban gunman boarded her school bus on October 9, 2012, asked “Who is Malala” and shot her in the head.
It was Malala’s father Ziauddin, a school principal and himself a seasoned campaigner for education, who first helped propel the precociously talented girl from the Swat valley into the limelight.
At his encouragement Malala started writing a blog for the BBC’s Urdu service under a pseudonym in 2009, when she was aged just 11, about how the Taliban were banning girls’ education in Swat. The New York Times filmed a documentary about her that same year.
But it was only after the shooting, and Malala’s subsequent miraculous recovery in a British hospital, that she became a truly global figure.
Former British prime minister Gordon Brown, a UN special education envoy, visited her in hospital shortly afterwards and took up her cause with a petition which he presented to the Pakistani government.
Brown later arranged for Malala to speak at the United Nations in July.
Behind the scenes Brown was also helping Malala and her family come to terms with their new reality.
“He has quite a close relationship with the family, particularly Malala’s father,” a source close to Brown told AFP, adding that Brown and his wife Sarah were helping the family with “things that have been fairly overwhelming”.
At the request of Malala’s father, Brown also personally asked consulting firm McKinsey to lend employee Shiza Shahid, a friend of the Yousafzai family. to chair the Malala Fund, the organisation that runs Malala’s education campaign and has won donors including Angelina Jolie.
The Malala machine really grew in November 2012 when the PR agency Edelman, whose clients include Starbucks and Microsoft, started working for her family.
A spokesman for Edelman told AFP it was carrying out the work on a pro-bono basis and now had a team of five people supporting Malala.
Edelman said its role “primarily involves providing a press office function for Malala” and “helping to advise the family on how to engage with the huge media and public interest in Malala’s campaign.”
There is now a two-month waiting list for an interview with Malala, the firm said.
The global spotlight has provoked a backlash in parts of Pakistani society, with some accusing Malala of acting as a puppet of the West while the Taliban have renewed the threat to her life.
Elsewhere there have also been concerns at the level of public exposure.
“It could be a burden. Imposing that on a child might not be ethical,” said Tilman Brueck, the head of Stockholm peace research institute SIPRI.
Malala herself insists the circus around her has not affected her personality.
“My world has changed but I have not,” she says in her autobiography “I Am Malala”.
==============================================================
RT News
Showing posts with label McKinsey Co. Show all posts
Showing posts with label McKinsey Co. Show all posts
Thursday, October 10, 2013
Thursday, August 06, 2009
Black Pigeon Obama imitates White ducks!
In order for a black president Obama to be accepted by American power centres he has to behave more White than the Whites. Obama is currently busy trying to implement G.W. Bush neo-con Zionist agenda but many times over. He is extending the war on Afghanistan to include Pakistan, fomenting troubles in Latin America by sending troops to Columbia and trying to establish a Green Zone Republic inside Somalia.
In the Middle East, Obama is playing the game by Israeli Nazi rules. Obama seems to forget that he ran his election campaign and won on a humanitarian, liberal and peaceful agenda not on a right wing political platform. Many don’t realise that American presidents aren’t free to operate when they reach the Whitehouse as they owe too many favours to too many crooks, fraudsters, special interests, oil and military cartels, and above all, to the powerful Jewish mafia. By the end of his first term, Obama will look extremely odd as he would have forgotten how to behave as a liberal Black and the White Anglo Saxons Protestants would have never accept him as one of them. It is like a pigeon who tried to walk like a duck. After four years, he failed to walk like a duck and forgot his original pigeon walking steps.
Slowly but surely, people of the world, each in their own country, started to uncover Jewish conspircies and expose those implementing Jewish designs. The war on Iraq is being squarley blamed on the Jews who forced the Americans to march on Baghdad to Israeli drums. The American financial meltdown is being identified as a result of the greed of the Jewish financial mafia in control of US financial institutions.
Anti-Semitic attacks on Jewish businesses have doubled in one year in the UK, Germany and France. Judging on the present mathematics of reality, the next Hitler will be an American one. One Hitler wasn't enough.
A veteran politician once mentioned that Jews are too clever, they make the Americans fight their own wars. In turn, Jewish-controlled America controls NATO, the European Union and scores of client regimes.
One can't deny that the Jews are in control of the US financial institutions? One can't deny the fact that Jews are in control of the media from Hollywood to Manhattan, NY? And finally one can't deny that the Jews are in control of Washington D.C.? I can easily Google the names of the Jewish members of the boards of directors of Goldman Sachs, Bear Stern, Lehmann Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Citibank and bank of America. Did you know that Michael Bloomberg made $8 billion working for Goldmansachs, moved to the media and finally ened up as the mayor of NY with the hope of running for the US presidency. The Jews are fleecing America while the US Zombies are busy fighting Jewish wars.
Adnan Darwash, Iraq Occupation Times =============== Ex-Goldman director Gupta gets two-year prison sentence Wed, Oct 24 19:35 PM EDT 1 of 9 By Grant McCool and Basil Katz NEW YORK (Reuters) - Disgraced Wall Street titan and philanthropist Rajat Gupta was sentenced to only two years in prison, a much lighter sentence than U.S. prosecutors had demanded, even though the federal judge who imposed it on Wednesday called his insider trading crimes "disgusting" and "a terrible breach of trust." Gupta was also ordered to pay a $5 million fine. He was convicted in Manhattan federal court last June for leaking Goldman Sachs boardroom secrets to Raj Rajaratnam, the hedge fund manager at the center of a U.S. government crackdown on insider trading over the past four years. Some legal experts said the sentence came as a surprise, while others said the judge struck a fine balance. U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff told a somber courtroom audience, including Gupta's wife and four adult daughters, that the illegal sharing of corporate secrets at the height of the 2008 financial crisis "was the functional equivalent of stabbing Goldman in the back." Gupta, 63, gave no visible reaction to the sentence, which was given at the end of a 30-minute statement in which the judge spelled out the businessman's "extraordinary" philanthropy over decades that stood in stark contrast to his crimes. Bill Gates, Microsoft Corp's co-founder, and former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan were among 400 friends and luminaries who had written letters to the judge urging leniency. During Gupta's trial, the court heard how Gupta had tipped off his then friend and business associate Rajaratnam between September and October of 2008. Within minutes of a conference call of members of Goldman's board on September 23, 2008, Gupta told Rajaratnam that influential investor Warren Buffett was infusing $5 billion into the investment bank. Rajaratnam traded on the information as the market was closing. In his statement on Wednesday, the judge said the tip "was not only overwhelming, but it was disgusting in its implications ... a terrible breach of trust" at a time when Goldman Sachs was in turmoil. But the judge also said: "I have never encountered a defendant whose past history suggests such an extraordinary devotion ... to people in need." Rakoff ordered Gupta to begin his sentence on January 8, 2013. He denied Gupta's lawyer's bid to have him freed on bail pending an appeal, which could last as long as two years. The former Goldman director is the most influential corporate figure to be convicted in the wide U.S. probe of insider trading involving fund managers, traders, consultants and executives. He is a former global head of the McKinsey & Co management consultancy, and once sat on the boards of Procter & Gamble Co and American Airlines as well advising philanthropies including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Gupta's sentence was less than the eight to 10 years sought by prosecutors, but more than the punishment of probation and community service in Rwanda that Gupta's lawyers had proposal. The judge dismissed that proposal as "a kind of Peace Corps for insider traders." The sentence was also less than some other insider trading defendants who went to trial and received four, five and even 10 years imprisonment. Rajaratnam is serving an 11-year prison sentence, one of the longest for insider trading. Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Tarlowe on Wednesday argued for a sentence of at least eight years, telling the court "Mr Gupta knew as much about the sanctity of these types of corporate confidences as anybody, and that's what makes it so shocking." New York securities class action and shareholder rights lawyer Mark Rifkin said the judge "understood both sides of the argument, and the relatively light sentence he imposed balances Gupta's misuse of his position against a lifetime of good work." But Andrew Stoltmann, an attorney and investor rights advocate based in Chicago, wondered whether Gupta's "Mother Teresa-like halo" had warranted a sentence that was "little more than a slap on the wrist." "He had such an important role at some of these companies that it is kind of the ultimate betrayal of trust." When Gupta took his turn to address the court, he read for six minutes from a prepared statement, using bland language that stopped short of fully admitting his conduct, but apologizing to "extraordinary institutions and outstanding people" he knows and to his family.
In the Middle East, Obama is playing the game by Israeli Nazi rules. Obama seems to forget that he ran his election campaign and won on a humanitarian, liberal and peaceful agenda not on a right wing political platform. Many don’t realise that American presidents aren’t free to operate when they reach the Whitehouse as they owe too many favours to too many crooks, fraudsters, special interests, oil and military cartels, and above all, to the powerful Jewish mafia. By the end of his first term, Obama will look extremely odd as he would have forgotten how to behave as a liberal Black and the White Anglo Saxons Protestants would have never accept him as one of them. It is like a pigeon who tried to walk like a duck. After four years, he failed to walk like a duck and forgot his original pigeon walking steps.
Slowly but surely, people of the world, each in their own country, started to uncover Jewish conspircies and expose those implementing Jewish designs. The war on Iraq is being squarley blamed on the Jews who forced the Americans to march on Baghdad to Israeli drums. The American financial meltdown is being identified as a result of the greed of the Jewish financial mafia in control of US financial institutions.
Anti-Semitic attacks on Jewish businesses have doubled in one year in the UK, Germany and France. Judging on the present mathematics of reality, the next Hitler will be an American one. One Hitler wasn't enough.
A veteran politician once mentioned that Jews are too clever, they make the Americans fight their own wars. In turn, Jewish-controlled America controls NATO, the European Union and scores of client regimes.
One can't deny that the Jews are in control of the US financial institutions? One can't deny the fact that Jews are in control of the media from Hollywood to Manhattan, NY? And finally one can't deny that the Jews are in control of Washington D.C.? I can easily Google the names of the Jewish members of the boards of directors of Goldman Sachs, Bear Stern, Lehmann Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Citibank and bank of America. Did you know that Michael Bloomberg made $8 billion working for Goldmansachs, moved to the media and finally ened up as the mayor of NY with the hope of running for the US presidency. The Jews are fleecing America while the US Zombies are busy fighting Jewish wars.
Adnan Darwash, Iraq Occupation Times =============== Ex-Goldman director Gupta gets two-year prison sentence Wed, Oct 24 19:35 PM EDT 1 of 9 By Grant McCool and Basil Katz NEW YORK (Reuters) - Disgraced Wall Street titan and philanthropist Rajat Gupta was sentenced to only two years in prison, a much lighter sentence than U.S. prosecutors had demanded, even though the federal judge who imposed it on Wednesday called his insider trading crimes "disgusting" and "a terrible breach of trust." Gupta was also ordered to pay a $5 million fine. He was convicted in Manhattan federal court last June for leaking Goldman Sachs boardroom secrets to Raj Rajaratnam, the hedge fund manager at the center of a U.S. government crackdown on insider trading over the past four years. Some legal experts said the sentence came as a surprise, while others said the judge struck a fine balance. U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff told a somber courtroom audience, including Gupta's wife and four adult daughters, that the illegal sharing of corporate secrets at the height of the 2008 financial crisis "was the functional equivalent of stabbing Goldman in the back." Gupta, 63, gave no visible reaction to the sentence, which was given at the end of a 30-minute statement in which the judge spelled out the businessman's "extraordinary" philanthropy over decades that stood in stark contrast to his crimes. Bill Gates, Microsoft Corp's co-founder, and former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan were among 400 friends and luminaries who had written letters to the judge urging leniency. During Gupta's trial, the court heard how Gupta had tipped off his then friend and business associate Rajaratnam between September and October of 2008. Within minutes of a conference call of members of Goldman's board on September 23, 2008, Gupta told Rajaratnam that influential investor Warren Buffett was infusing $5 billion into the investment bank. Rajaratnam traded on the information as the market was closing. In his statement on Wednesday, the judge said the tip "was not only overwhelming, but it was disgusting in its implications ... a terrible breach of trust" at a time when Goldman Sachs was in turmoil. But the judge also said: "I have never encountered a defendant whose past history suggests such an extraordinary devotion ... to people in need." Rakoff ordered Gupta to begin his sentence on January 8, 2013. He denied Gupta's lawyer's bid to have him freed on bail pending an appeal, which could last as long as two years. The former Goldman director is the most influential corporate figure to be convicted in the wide U.S. probe of insider trading involving fund managers, traders, consultants and executives. He is a former global head of the McKinsey & Co management consultancy, and once sat on the boards of Procter & Gamble Co and American Airlines as well advising philanthropies including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Gupta's sentence was less than the eight to 10 years sought by prosecutors, but more than the punishment of probation and community service in Rwanda that Gupta's lawyers had proposal. The judge dismissed that proposal as "a kind of Peace Corps for insider traders." The sentence was also less than some other insider trading defendants who went to trial and received four, five and even 10 years imprisonment. Rajaratnam is serving an 11-year prison sentence, one of the longest for insider trading. Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Tarlowe on Wednesday argued for a sentence of at least eight years, telling the court "Mr Gupta knew as much about the sanctity of these types of corporate confidences as anybody, and that's what makes it so shocking." New York securities class action and shareholder rights lawyer Mark Rifkin said the judge "understood both sides of the argument, and the relatively light sentence he imposed balances Gupta's misuse of his position against a lifetime of good work." But Andrew Stoltmann, an attorney and investor rights advocate based in Chicago, wondered whether Gupta's "Mother Teresa-like halo" had warranted a sentence that was "little more than a slap on the wrist." "He had such an important role at some of these companies that it is kind of the ultimate betrayal of trust." When Gupta took his turn to address the court, he read for six minutes from a prepared statement, using bland language that stopped short of fully admitting his conduct, but apologizing to "extraordinary institutions and outstanding people" he knows and to his family.
"I feel terrible that they have been burdened with totally undeserved negative attention. I apologize to them and ask for their forgiveness."Federal judges have wide leeway in sentencing, and Rakoff has a reputation for veering from guidelines designed for courts in handing down punishment. Gupta had faced a maximum sentence of 20 years for securities fraud and five years for conspiracy. Gupta's lawyer, Gary Naftalis, arguing for a lenient sentence, said his client had suffered a "fall from grace of Greek tragedy proportions." "This was an iconic figure who had been a role model for countless people around the globe," Naftalis said. "He is no more." The case is USA v Gupta, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, No. 11-cr-907. (Reporting by Grant McCool; Editing by Martha Graybow, Matthew Lewis, Gary Hill) ========== Ex-Goldman director Gupta seeks conviction reversal Tue, Jan 22 15:01 PM EST 1 of 2 By Nate Raymond NEW YORK (Reuters) - Lawyers for former Goldman Sachs Group Inc board member Rajat Gupta are urging a federal appeals court to reverse his insider trading conviction, arguing that a judge shouldn't have allowed wiretaps to be heard at trial. In a brief filed Friday at the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York, Gupta's lawyers argued wiretaps of now-imprisoned hedge fund manager Raj Rajaratnam amounted to "hearsay statements" and should not have been presented to the jury. "Without a proper basis for admission, these untestable, unreliable hearsay statements had no place in a criminal trial, and their admission alone compels reversal," Gupta's lawyers wrote. A federal jury convicted Gupta, 64, in June of leaking Goldman boardroom secrets to Rajaratnam, the Galleon Group hedge fund manager at the center of a wide-ranging U.S. probe into insider trading. Gupta, who was at one time head of management consultancy McKinsey & Co, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff to two years in prison. The 2nd Circuit in December said Gupta could remain free on bail while he appeals his conviction. A trial is scheduled to begin February 11 in a separate civil lawsuit by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Of the four counts Gupta was charged with in the criminal case, his lawyers said Friday that the jury only convicted him on the two backed by wiretaps of Rajaratnam, who is serving an 11-year sentence following his own conviction in May 2011. Gupta's lawyers say the wiretaps amounted to hearsay evidence, since they were of conversations between Rajaratnam and other Galleon Group employees, rather than with Gupta. Gupta's lawyers said he was also prevented from presenting evidence of an alternative perpetrator and of Gupta's integrity. The defense lawyers say they weren't allowed to present testimony by Gupta's daughter about a conversation where her father said he was angry at Rajaratnam for allegedly cheating him out of millions of dollars through a joint investment fund known as Voyager Capital Partners. The conversation took place three days before one of the alleged tips Gupta was convicted on and a month before a second, the brief said. Gupta contends that if the testimony had been presented, the jury would have been led to question Gupta's motives to tip Rajaratnam. Terence Lynam, a lawyer for Raj Rajaratnam, in a statement denied that his client "swindled" Gupta, as the appellate brief claimed. "No funds of Mr. Gupta were ever misappropriated and Mr. Gupta was not 'swindled' in any way," Lynam said. A spokeswoman for Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara declined comment. The government is scheduled to respond with its own appellate brief March 15. The case is USA v. Rajat Gupta, 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, No 12-4448. (Reporting by Nate Raymond in New York; Editing by Phil Berlowitz, Bernard Orr) ===================
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