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Article: Steve Cohen Fights Back Against Claims Of Insider Trading

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Steve Cohen Fights Back Against Claims Of Insider Trading

JIM ZARROLI, 23 July 2013

From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I’m Melissa Block. Billionaire Steven Cohen is fighting back. He faces federal charges that he didn’t do enough to prevent insider trading at his hedge fund SAC Capital.

As The Wall Street Journal reported this morning, Cohen’s firm issued a rebuttal, claiming that he never saw an email that’s an important part of the government’s case. Here’s NPR’s Jim Zarroli. Continue reading “Article: Steve Cohen Fights Back Against Claims Of Insider Trading”

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Article: SEC charges SAC Capital’s Steven Cohen over insider trading

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SEC charges SAC Capital’s Steven Cohen over insider trading

Verdict Staff, 22 July 2013

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has filed civil charges against Steven Cohen, head of the hedge fund SAC Capital, for failing to supervise two portfolio managers and prevent insider trading.

In the complaint, the SEC alleges that Cohen received highly suspicious information that should have caused any reasonable hedge fund manager to investigate the basis for trades made by two portfolio managers who reported to him, Mathew Martoma and Michael Steinberg. Continue reading “Article: SEC charges SAC Capital’s Steven Cohen over insider trading”

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Article: Busting Steve Cohen: How a Minor Charge Threatens a Major Figure

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Busting Steve Cohen: How a Minor Charge Threatens a Major Figure

Charles Gasparino, 22 July 2013

After years of investigations, wiretaps, and coercing cooperation from numerous witnesses, the government’s big insider trading case against hedge fund impresario and long-time target Steve Cohen may come down to a single “failure to supervise” charge.

That’s right: No insider trading charges; no criminal charges; and no fraud allegations. It sounds like pretty weak stuff considering what the Feds believe to be the scope of the crime: numerous instances of insider trading at the massive hedge fund that Cohen runs, the Stamford, Connecticut-based SAC Capital — and possibly the direct involvement of Cohen himself in some of those trades. Continue reading “Article: Busting Steve Cohen: How a Minor Charge Threatens a Major Figure”

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Article: US billionaire Steven Cohen to answer case over insider trading

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US billionaire Steven Cohen to answer case over insider trading

After a long investigation into insider trading at the hedge fund SAC Capital Advisors, an inquiry that has produced several guilty pleas and a record US$616 million civil penalty, the US government has brought a case for the first time against the fund’s billionaire owner, Steven Cohen.

In a civil action, the Securities and Exchange Commission accused Cohen, 57, of failing to supervise former employees who face criminal charges.

The commission contends that he ignored “red flags” that should have led him to investigate suspicious trading activity at SAC and take steps to prevent illegal conduct.

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Article: SEC Charges Steven A. Cohen With Failing to Supervise Portfolio Managers and Prevent Insider Trading

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SEC Charges Steven A. Cohen With Failing to Supervise Portfolio Managers and Prevent Insider Trading

SEC, 19 July 2013

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced charges against hedge fund adviser Steven A. Cohen for failing to supervise two senior employees and prevent them from insider trading under his watch.

The SEC’s Division of Enforcement alleges that Cohen received highly suspicious information that should have caused any reasonable hedge fund manager to investigate the basis for trades made by two portfolio managers who reported to him – Mathew Martoma and Michael Steinberg. Cohen ignored the red flags and allowed Martoma and Steinberg to execute the trades. Instead of scrutinizing their conduct, Cohen praised Steinberg for his role in the suspicious trading and rewarded Martoma with a $9 million bonus for his work. Cohen’s hedge funds earned profits and avoided losses of more than $275 million as a result of the illegal trades. Continue reading “Article: SEC Charges Steven A. Cohen With Failing to Supervise Portfolio Managers and Prevent Insider Trading”

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Article: SEC charges Steven Cohen for failing to act on insider trading ‘red flags’

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SEC charges Steven Cohen for failing to act on insider trading ‘red flags’

Dominic Rushe , 19 July 2019

Regulators have filed charges against billionaire investor and famed art collector Steven Cohen for failing to act on “red flags” suggesting insider trading at his hedge fund.

The move is a major blow for the founder of SAC Capital, whose company has been under investigation by the FBI, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and other regulators for years. While the civil charges stop short of accusing Cohen of fraud, the SEC said he failed to spot signs that indicated insider trading by two portfolio managers at his Stamford, Connecticut, hedge fund. Continue reading “Article: SEC charges Steven Cohen for failing to act on insider trading ‘red flags’”

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Article: Hedge fund founder Steven Cohen charged over ‘insider trading’

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Hedge fund founder Steven Cohen charged over ‘insider trading’

BBC News, 19 July 2013

A billionaire hedge fund manager has been charged with failing to stop insider trading, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) says. SAC Capital Advisors founder Steven Cohen, 57, faces civil charges over what the US government has called one of the biggest such fraud cases ever. Mr Cohen did not properly supervise two traders who engaged in illegal insider trading, the SEC alleges. Continue reading “Article: Hedge fund founder Steven Cohen charged over ‘insider trading’”

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Article: How Putin Uses Money Laundering Charges to Control His Opponents

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How Putin Uses Money Laundering Charges to Control His Opponents

ANDREW S. BOWEN, 18 July 2013

Russian President Vladimir Putin (left) speaks with Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu (right) and Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov during a flight to watch military exercises in Russia’s Zabaykalsky region July 17, 2013 (Reuters/Aleksey Nikolskyi)

Last Thursday, Sergei Magnitsky was convicted of tax evasion. The only problem was he was not there to hear the verdict read. Magnitsky was killed in Moscow’s Butyrka prison in 2009, likely as a result of beatings and a lack of medical treatment. His crime was uncovering a $230 million tax fraud involving members of the government while working as a lawyer for William Browder (an American investor who was also convicted in absentia). Continue reading “Article: How Putin Uses Money Laundering Charges to Control His Opponents”

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Article: Sergei Magnitsky verdict ‘most shameful moment since Stalin’

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Sergei Magnitsky verdict ‘most shameful moment since Stalin’

Miriam Elder, 11 July 2013

The courtroom cage in Moscow stood empty on Thursday as a judge found the late whistleblower Sergei Magnitsky and his London-based employer guilty of tax evasion in a move likened to Stalin-era justice.

The case against the two defendants – Magnitsky, allowed to die an excruciating death in prison in 2009, and William Browder, banned from entering Russia since 2005 – has come to symbolise the brutality of Russia’s system and the penalties incurred by those who uncovering official wrongdoing. Continue reading “Article: Sergei Magnitsky verdict ‘most shameful moment since Stalin’”

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Paper: Naked Short Selling: Is it Information-Based Trading?

Paper

Naked Short Selling: Is it Information-Based Trading?

Harrison Liu, Sean T. McGuire, Edward P. Swanson

SSRN Electronic Journal, 21 June 2013

Citing a widely held belief that naked short selling is not based on company fundamentals, the SEC (2008) has substantially tightened Reg. SHO close-out regulations in an effort to eliminate naked short selling. Contrary to accepted belief, we find that accounting fundamentals are highly significant in explaining naked short sales. Further, naked short sales contain incremental information about future stock prices: Abnormal returns from a long/short trading strategy that buys (sells short) shares with low (high) short interest are more than seven times larger using naked and covered short interest, compared to returns using only covered short interest (15.2 percent vs. 2.1 percent annualized). Our findings show that recent actions by regulators to eliminate naked short sales are likely to impede informed arbitrage and reduce market efficiency.

PDF ( 41 pages): Naked Short Selling: Is it Information-Based Trading?

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Article: SEC fines optionsXpress, individuals $4.8 million for naked short sales

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SEC fines optionsXpress, individuals $4.8 million for naked short sales

Reuters Staff, 10 June 2013

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A Securities and Exchange Commission judge has ordered optionsXpress, its former chief financial officer and a customer to pay a total of $4.8 million in fines and to return $4.2 million for illegally selling shares they did not hold.

The order was posted late Friday on the SEC’s website.

A lawyer for Charles Schwab Corp, which bought optionsXpress in 2011 after the alleged violations occurred, said that optionsXpress “respectfully disagrees” with the ruling and is considering an appeal.

“There was no naked short selling in this case,” Stephen Senderowitz, a lawyer representing optionsXpress, said in an email to Reuters.

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Article: Steve Cohen gets subpoena in US insider trading probe

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Steve Cohen gets subpoena in US insider trading probe

Steve Cohen has received a subpoena to testify before a grand jury in a federal insider trading investigation at his hedge fund, SAC Capital Advisers. Steve Cohen’s subpoena puzzles defense lawyers.

The decision by U.S. prosecutors to compel Steven A. Cohen to testify before a federal grand jury about allegations of insider trading at his $15 billion hedge fund is leaving many criminal defense lawyers scratching their heads.

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Article: Steven Cohen to Testify Before Grand Jury over Insider Trading

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Steven Cohen to Testify Before Grand Jury over Insider Trading

24/7 Wall St., 20 May 2013

As federal officials investigate insider trading at Steven Cohen’s SAC Capital Advisors, the noose has begun to tighten around his neck. There has long been a suspicion that he was aware of the illegal practice within his firm, if he did not employ it himself. Worries about the possible legal effects of the probe have caused many of his investors to flee. If Cohen is caught in the government’s web, the process likely escalate. Continue reading “Article: Steven Cohen to Testify Before Grand Jury over Insider Trading”

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Article: Gangster State America. “Naked Short” in the Gold Market

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Gangster State America. “Naked Short” in the Gold Market

Dr. Paul Craig Roberts

Global Research, 13 May 2013

There are many signs of gangster state America. One is the collusion between federal authorities and banksters in a criminal conspiracy to rig the markets for gold and silver.

My explanation that the sudden appearance of an unprecedented 400 ton short sale of gold on the COMEX in April was a manipulation designed to protect the dollar from the Federal Reserve’s quantitative easing policy has found acceptance among gold investors and hedge fund managers.

The sale was a naked short. The seller had no gold to sell. COMEX reported having gold only equal to about half of the short sale in its vaults, and not all of that was available for delivery. No one but the Federal Reserve could have placed such an order, and the order came from one of the Fed’s bullion banks, one of the entities “too big to fail.”

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Article: UBS, in Theory, a Conspiracy to Naked Short “Tens of Millions” of Shares

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UBS, in Theory, a Conspiracy to Naked Short “Tens of Millions” of Shares

MARK MITCHELL, 01 May 2013

It wasn’t long ago when they were saying that naked short selling never happened. They said it simply did not exist, that only wild-eyed conspiracy theorists believed in naked short selling. That was before 2008, when the CEOs of some big banks started hollering that naked short selling was causing the stock prices of their banks to nosedive. With the CEOs of the big banks hollering, the SEC, in June, 2008, issued an Emergency Order banning naked short selling (that previously did not exist) in the stocks of 19 big financial institutions (i.e. the financial institutions that were doing the naked short selling—to each other). But the SEC did nothing about the naked short selling of other stocks because, apparently, that naked short selling existed only in the fevered imaginations of people who believed that their savings were being wiped out by little green men. Continue reading “Article: UBS, in Theory, a Conspiracy to Naked Short “Tens of Millions” of Shares”