New York, May 18 (PTI): Rajat Gupta, one of the world’s most prominent Indian-born business leaders, has been warned by a US judge that he cannot beat insider trading charges by trumpeting his history of philanthropy any more than Mother Teresa could use her missionary work to fend off bank robbery charges.

“If Mother Teresa were here and charged with bank robbery, the jury would still have to determine whether or not she committed the robbery,” US district judge Jed Rakoff said at a pre-trial hearing in a Manhattan court.

Lawyers for Gupta, who will go on trial next Monday, sought to impress upon the judge the history of philanthropic work the former McKinsey head has been involved with.

“You’re talking about one of the renowned and active humanitarians in the world who has worked to eradicate AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis,” Gupta’s lawyer Gary Naftalis was quoted as saying in a New York Times report.

Rakoff, known for his use of humour during court proceedings, gave a series of rulings and invited attorneys, “in the interest of wasting time”, to challenge them.

“Forewarned of the hill I have to climb,” Naftalis urged Rakoff to reconsider a decision limiting the time he would be given to talk about Gupta’s charitable works.

He said he should not be forced to play down Gupta’s generosity when prosecutors will try to convince jurors he was motivated by money to commit insider trading.

Rakoff said he would allow the defence to give the jury a “quick” sense of Gupta’s philanthropy.