Hedge fund giant Capital Advisors will plead guilty "to criminal fraud charges, stop investing money for others and pay 1.8 billion... to resolve criminal and civil claims," The Associated Press reported on Monday.
This marks the largest financial penalty in the history for insider trading, which is the trading of a public company's stock or other securities, like bonds or stock options, by individuals with access to non-public information about the company.
SAC Capital agreed to pay a $900 million fine and forfeit another $900 million to the federal government, news reports said. The government called the penalties "steep but fair" and "commensurate with the breadth and duration of the charged criminal conduct," The AP also reported.
"We take responsibility for the handful of men who pleaded guilty and whose conduct gave rise to SAC's liability. The tiny fraction of wrongdoers does not represent the 3,000 honest men and women who have worked at the firm during the past 21 years. SAC has never encouraged, promoted or tolerated insider trading," a spokesman for SAC Capital read in a statement on Monday afternoon.
At least eight former SAC employees have already been criminally charged with insider trading and many of whom have pleaded guilty, The AP also reported.
FBI Assistant Director George Venizelos said SAC Capital's plea demonstrated "that cheating and breaking the law were not only permitted but allowed to persist, the AP reported.
A civil case involving the SEC in which they are seeking to bar SAC founder Steven Cohen for life, has yet been resolved.
"Even though this is a historic settlement, no one is going to jail," Bloomberg's Sheelah Kollhatkar said on PBS' Newshour.
