The Only Thing Mathew Martoma's Ex-Lawyer Has To Work On In The Run-Up To The Summer Is His Base Tan

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Another intriguing development in the insider trading investigation centered on SAC Capital in a week already overflowing with them: Mathew Martoma is replacing his defense lawyer. The move immediately raises questions about whether Martoma plans to change his strategy, which, so far, at least, could be characterized as: fight without giving an inch...His former attorney, Charles Stillman, of Stillman & Friedman, is known as a spirited fighter. Martoma is replacing him with Richard M. Strassberg of Goodwin and Proctor, a much larger firm that has secured some victories in defending insider trading cases...Strassberg could not be reached for comment. "The young man made a decision, I wish him well,” Stillman said Thursday, explaining that his life had changed quickly, now that he wasn’t bracing for a possible summer trial. “We have a house in the Berkshires, and we’re talking about redoing our deck,” he said. “So the day this happened, I called my wife and said, ‘Call the contractor, it’s time to finish the deck!’” [BusinessWeek]

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The Feds Are Struggling To Understand Why Mathew Martoma Won't Just Turn On Steve Cohen Already, God Damn It

"We have been remarkably successful in convincing persons to cooperate with the government, and provide evidence to us, and in court of law," SEC director of enforcement Robert Khuzami said during a press conference the day the government went public with its charges of insider trading against former SAC Capital employee Mathew Martoma. To the untrained ear, Khuzami probably appeared to be speaking to no one in particular, just sending a general message to any would-be criminals out there that once the government got to their co-conspirators, it'd be all over. No one wants to do time, and everybody flips. To those who've been following Operations Perfect Hedge, though, and have watched the Feds' relentless pursuit of Steven A. Cohen,  it was obvious they were sending a clear message to the Big Guy: "We got ya boy, and ya goin' down." And since its track record of getting people to turn on their colleagues and in some cases, their best friends (see: Noah Freeman/Donald Longueuil, and these guys, and these guys, and this guy) really has been "remarkably successful," and since Martoma has a wife and two young kids and his whole life ahead of him, Khuzami and Co. probably assumed they had this one in the bag. But not so.