In his closing remarks, assistant United States attorney Eugene Ingoglia told a court hearing regarding insider trading allegedly conducted at SAC Capital Advisors that ex-portfolio manager Mathew Martoma's pursuits to obtain information vital to the assets he has managed was similar to pursuing an early-warning system.
Martoma's case is just one of the results of the US government's investigation into the hedge fund company. In ten years, perseverance has paid off: a total of six ex-employees has been found guilty on insider trading, said The New York Post's The DealBook. SAC itself also pleaded guilty and is set to pay a massive fine amounting to $1.2 billion.
Telling the jury, Ingoglia detailed how Martoma had devloped relationships with two doctors who were involved in a clinical trial for an Alzheimer's drug, which was then run by Wyeth and Elan, DealBook said. Ingoglia added that Martoma used the information to his advantage by trading prior to Elan announcing its trial results, which allowed SAC to generate $275 million in profits in the process and avoiding losses. Martoma's camp refuted the US government's case against the former trader as the latter was said to have depended on an unreliable witness.
Joel Ross and Sidney Gilman had testified as witness against Martoma in the four-week trial, said DealBook, with both doctors inking nonprosecution agreements with the US government.
Interestingly, Bloomberg pointed out defense attorney Richard Strassberg's comment during the trial. He told the jury, "Mathew was just a grain of sand in their haste to make a case against someone who is not even in this courtroom: Mathew's boss, Steven Cohen,"
Businessweek said in a separate report that Cohen has yet to be charged by the US government on insider charges because the billionaire hedge fund manager had managed to be careful in its dealings with its own employees.
