It can’t be defamatory or
slanderous if one calls a person convicted for a white collar crime, a
criminal. But, as the saying goes, every saint has a past and every sinner has
a future.
As Rajat Gupta, former McKinsey
& Co chief, who worked in the Board of Goldman Sachs and the Bill and
Melinda Gates Foundation Advisory Board and served as the advisor to the United
Nations, the Rockefeller Foundation and the World Economic Forum, shares his
wisdom in his book “Mind Without Fear” (Released on March 24, 2019), one can
possibly get convinced that only a sinner can be a successful preacher.
Victim of prejudice?
Rajat Gupta is back this week in Indian
School of Business (ISB) Hyderabad, which he co-founded and led for many years, to tell the
budding business leaders about the goodwill he generated and ultimately lost,
which resulted in his exile for almost a decade for ‘no fault of his’. There could be several eyebrows raised on the
message his audience comprising mostly the future business leaders would derive
from his futile defense, having served the full term of conviction for the
crime. Irrespective of what his words are – in his speech or in the book, there
could be a certain inference that the same would be perceived as a message of
decriminalizing a white collar offence. Based on his words of rationalization,
would the young minds conclude that white collar crimes are products of
circumstances rather than outcomes of criminal minds? Based on his narration of
how unfair he was treated after the charge, would there be an apprehension that
white collar crime trials are marred by primordial prejudices and therefore
unfair?
Victim of circumstances?
Though Gupta’s book, as he
admits, is neither aimed at defending himself nor an instrument to to redeem
himself of the unpleasant past, its purpose is to demonstrate his
innocence. Gupta tells the readers that
he was a victim of circumstances. Here, one would get reminded of the famous “Fraud Triangle” theorist Donald
Cressey who identified ‘rationalization’ as one of the key elements of fraud
behavior as perceived by the fraudster. Gupta is grieved by the way someone
whom he trusted cheated him and put his entire career and the long lived
reputation into jeopardy. He is also
saddened not only by the trial which he thinks was prejudicial, but also how
McKinsey with which he had long relationship with uncompromising commitment and
hard work, reacted to his insider trading case.
Rajat Gupta, was charged by the
prosecution of insider trading on Wall Street with hedge fund manager Raj
Rajaratnam. After 4 years of investigation, as against the prosecution’s
demand of 10 years of imprisonment, the Senior District Judge for the Southern
District of New York imposed a sentence of 2 years. Court appreciated the past good
work of Rajat Gupta and found it to be a mitigating sentencing factor. He was
imprisoned in June 2014 and was staying in Federal Medical Centre Devens, a
federal correctional facility in Massachusetts. Around 5 months before
completing the prison term, he was allowed to spend the rest of the sentence at
home after receiving credit for good behavior.
Redeeming the moral credits
When Rajat Gupta, who was already
extremely financially affluent played a crucial role in aiding Rajarathinam,
the motive may not be money. While conducting the trial, the Judge Rakkoff was
puzzled why a successful businessman, a philanthropist and a mentor for many senior leaders in the
industry committed such an offence? Mr. Gupta had catalogued all his
philanthropic activities to demonstrate that he was always a good person. He
submitted character certificates from several famous persons including Bill
Gates, Deepak Chopra and Kofi Annan. It is reported that he had filed letters
from his own family members about his acts of kindness! As Todd Haugh, a scholar
of white collar crimes, rightly observed, there was an attempt to apply the
“metaphor-of-the-ledger neutralization” technique originally propounded by the
criminologist Mark M. Lanier. The attempt was to project the good deeds as a
mitigating factor.
Questions to the business schools
Image: poetsandquantsforexecs
A few questions emerge from the
above discussion for further pondering: When several good deeds overshadow one
bad deed, can that be condoned? When a person demonstrates his inherent
goodness and states that a momentary aberration was seen as a serious crime
because of certain prejudices, is it amounts to decriminalization of an offence?
Will the above position would influence the young business minds to trivialize the
need for uncompromising adherence to the standards of corporate governance and
business ethics? May be, the professors and mentors in the area of business
management, are the right persons to answer the above questions and decide
whether the experiences shared by people like Rajat Gupta are warning signs or
justifications for white collar crimes. But, one can't write off Rajat Gupta - a person with exceptional managerial competence and leadership skills! His life and achievements are inspirational too!
