Things Could Be Worse But They Could Also Be Better At SAC Capital Right Now

The good news, if you are Mr. Steve Cohen: you were neither charged nor "mentioned by name" in the criminal complaint against your former employee, Mathew Martoma. The less good news: YOU ARE PORTFOLIO MANAGER A. YOU NEVER WANT TO BE PORTFOLIO MANAGER A!
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The good news, if you are Mr. Steve Cohen: you were neither charged nor "mentioned by name" in the criminal complaint against your former employee, Mathew Martoma, who is alleged to have orchestrated "the most lucrative insider trading scheme ever."The less good news: YOU ARE PORTFOLIO MANAGER A. YOU NEVER WANT TO BE PORTFOLIO MANAGER A!

U.S. officials for the first time Tuesday implicated Steven A. Cohen, the founder of SAC Capital Advisors LP, in an alleged insider-trading scheme they said was the most lucrative ever to be charged...Mr. Cohen...is referred to as "Portfolio Manager A" in an alleged $276 million insider-trading scheme in a civil complaint filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission, according to people familiar with the matter. Both civil and criminal complaints also refer to him as the "owner" of two hedge-fund affiliates involved in the alleged scheme, and depict him as integrally involved in the allegedly illicit transactions...According to the SEC complaint, Portfolio Manager A authorized many of the trades based on Mr. Martoma's alleged inside information, and rejected the advice of other analysts at his firm that conflicted with Mr. Martoma's positions. In particular, on July 20, 2008, after Mr. Martoma had learned negative information relating to two pharmaceutical stocks in which SAC and its affiliate had big positions, Mr. Martoma said it was "important" that he speak to Portfolio Manager A, and indicated he was no longer "comfortable" with their positions, according to the civil complaint.

The next day, Portfolio Manager A's head trader began selling hundreds of millions of dollars of shares in the two companies, and the hedge funds later began executing negative bets against those two companies' stocks, reaping big profits and saving large losses.

Steve Cohen Implicated In Insider Trading Scheme [WSJ]

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Things Could Be A LOT Better At SAC Capital Right Now

Back in October, we detailed a list of things that, if you are the hedge fund manager who goes by the name Steven A. Cohen, you really don't want to hear first thing in the morning. They included: “The fleeces are on back order”; “Your ex-wife is in the lobby”; “There’s a photographer here who said he’s been authorized to shoot you wearing a king’s robe and crown for a set of playing cards”; “You’ve been outmaneuvered for the Toledo Mud Hens. But I hear the Binghamton Mets may be available.” Today we must update that list to include another thing, perhaps THE thing,* that people delivering news to Cohen don't want to relay. Paraphrasing but any variants on: "Mr. Cohen, we've received a Wells notice and by the way, they're considering naming you personally."

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As you may have heard, earlier today, Mathew Martoma, a former portfolio manager in SAC Capital's CR Intrinsic unit, was charged with allegedly running “the most lucrative insider trading scheme ever," netting $276 million for the fund. He did so based on information that was given to him by Sid Gilman, a University of Michigan neurologist and chair of a "safety-monitoring committee that oversaw a clinical trial by Wyeth LLC and Elan Corp.  into whether the drug bapineuzumab, or bapi, was safe for patients with mild-to-moderate Alzheimer’s disease." Over an 18-month period, Gilman and Martoma met 42 times, in addition to emailing and chatting over the phone. For example:

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Back in December, a bunch of recruiters made the bold claim that following the government's charges against former portfolio manager Mathew Martoma, SAC Capital employees were, if not giving them the time of day, at least waiting a few seconds longer before hanging up the phone. At another firm, the turn events probably would have been cause for concern that the staff would be abandoning ship in short order. Since we're talking about SAC, though, we figured not only would The Big Guy & Co not be concerned about the prospect of mass resignations but would take the opportunity to remind people that this is SAC Capital and at SAC Capital, they don't receive resignation letters, they only issue pink slips, lest anyone be getting any ideas. So you can imagine our shock and horror to find out this happened: