How Gupta Came Undone

摘要

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. 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.