Faced with allegations of passing on insider information on companies such as Goldman Sachs to Galleon Group's billionaire hedge fund manager Mr Raj Rajaratnam, Mr Rajat Gupta has resigned from the board of India-centric offshore BPO firm Genpact Ltd.
The company said that Mr Gupta's resignation as non-executive chairman of the Board was ‘voluntary'.
In a filing to the US market regulator SEC, Genpact said, “The company received his (Mr Gupta's) formal resignation letter on March 7, 2011.”
“On March 4, Mr Rajat K. Gupta notified Genpact of his resignation as non-executive Chairman of the board of directors of the company and as a member of the board of directors of the company,” it said.
Prior to his resignation, Mr Gupta had also served as a member of the board's nominating and governance committee, it added.
Genpact has, meanwhile, appointed board member Mr Robert G. Scott as interim non-executive Chairman. Mr Scott became a director of the company in April 2006 and serves on its audit committee. From 2001 to 2003, he served as President and Chief Operating Officer at Morgan Stanley. He has also served as an advisory director at Morgan Stanley and since January 2010 he has been a director on the board of NYSE Euronext, the filing by Genpact added.
The company, in an e-mail statement, said that Mr Gupta's resignation was aimed at “preventing any distraction to the Board and business”.
“He has denied the SEC's charges brought against him, but is stepping down in the interests of the company to prevent any distraction to our Board and our business,” the statement said.
According to the SEC, Mr Gupta (former Goldman Sachs Group Inc and Procter & Gamble Co board member) allegedly tipped of Mr Rajaratnam with confidential information about Berkshire Hathaway Inc's $5-billion investment in Goldman, before it was publicly announced on September 23, 2008.
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