US District Judge Laura Taylor Swain recently emailed an email from an anonymous critic who is urging for the judge to reconsider the deal the US government had accorded to SAC Capital Advisors LP. The Justice Department had reached a settlement with the infamous hedge fund firm over insider trading allegations, the Wall Street Journal said in a report.
"LTS, you must be tough like [Judge] Rakoff, kill the plea deal now that SAC trader Mathew Martoma is convicted to force DoJ to put Steve Cohen behind bars. His billions were made by insider trading and stolen from investors," the email read, pertaining to the alleged deceit of hedge fund manager Steve Cohen.
The email sender had called on the named of another federal judge, Jed Rakoff, who is known for his interventions in corporate accords.
Former SAC portfolio manager Martoma had been found guilty of insider trading early this month at a Manhattan federal court, and is among the six employees of the hedge fund whose actions SAC took responsibility for in a plea deal in November last year. WSJ said the deal did not result to an accusation of Cohen for criminal wrongdoing.
Swain is currently weighing the decision to approve a $900 million as criminal penalty to be applied to SAC. The amount, said WSJ, is part of a record $1.8 billion settlement, which also includes a reduced $284 million civil forfeiture penalty from the original $900 million SAC has already paid funds to the US Securities and Exchange Commission. A separate court ruling had given approval to the civil portion also in November.
Swan has put the email she received on the docket on Thursday, of which WSJ said had no clues regarding the identity of the sender. Swain is expected to provide a ruling on the hedge fund settlement' criminal portion in a Manhattan federal court hearing in March this year.
