Source - SAC to Plead Guilty, Shutter Offices & Pay $1B Fine

[Parsad]

Expected to be announced Monday.  Cheers!

 

http://www.cnbc.com/id/101164926

[nwoodman]

That made my day, thanks for posting    ;D Hopefully it sets a healthy precedent for any further action by Fairfax

[Stone19]

Does anyone know how much money this man made from these activities?

 

Is a billion dollar fine more,less or equal to what he made illegally

[siddharth18]

You rob a bank - you lose your freedom (go to jail).

 

You rob market participants/investors to the tune of hundreds of millions (maybe even billions) by front-running/insider trading - you pay a fine and move on.

[Parsad]

You rob a bank - you lose your freedom (go to jail).

 

You rob market participants/investors to the tune of hundreds of millions (maybe even billions) by front-running/insider trading - you pay a fine and move on.

 

Yup, silly.  But the bank robber probably can't afford a cadre of lawyers to battle the government for another ten years.

 

Does anyone know how much money this man made from these activities?

 

Is a billion dollar fine more,less or equal to what he made illegally

 

I would guess from the rampant allegations made by the government...a majority of the company's profits and Cohen's wealth came from such activities if the government is correct in the number of participants they've nailed so far. 

 

Cheers!

[ragu]

That made my day, thanks for posting    ;D

 

Ditto, although the cynic in me was expecting only a fine. I hope they get him on the civil charges.

 

Best,

Ragu

[siddharth18]

You rob a bank - you lose your freedom (go to jail).

 

You rob market participants/investors to the tune of hundreds of millions (maybe even billions) by front-running/insider trading - you pay a fine and move on.

 

Yup, silly.  But the bank robber probably can't afford a cadre of lawyers to battle the government for another ten years.

 

 

Do you believe that US is cutting Cohan any slack in this case? I think Bharara would really like to throw the book at Cohen but this is the best they can do with the scant evidence they have. If they had more damning/smoking-gun type evidence (like Raj Rajaratnam), I'm sure Cohen would already be handcuffed by now, rotting in a jail cell.

 

He's smart/lucky to have not kept any meaningful trail that would incriminate himself - hence he created such a complex web of entities that mostly existed only to shield him from personal responsibility/liability, while concomitantly funnel all the profits back to him. That's why all his underlings go to jail while his capture is elusive, at best.

 

To think about what his actions mean for the economy and the world - it's mind boggling. A single person's machination that constantly and consistently embezzled the market participants by obtaining access to market-moving information ahead of all others and acquiring all the monetary benefit of bringing such efficiency, but unfairly.

 

For what little he has provided to the society, he now possesses the power to obtain goods/services and channel society's hard work/labor into pleasing his whims to the tune of $9,000,000,000.

 

 

Just look at his trades: Link

[infinitee00]

I don't think they would have admitted fraud and agreed to a $1.8B settlement if the govt didn't have something substantial.

 

From Yahoo http://finance.yahoo.com/news/us-govt-hedge-fund-giant-161712836.html

 

A prosecutor said at the time that evidence against the company was "voluminous" and included electronic messages, instant messages, court-ordered wiretaps and consensual recordings.

 

 

 

Do you believe that US is cutting Cohan any slack in this case? I think Bharara would really like to throw the book at Cohen but this is the best they can do with the scant evidence they have. If they had more damning/smoking-gun type evidence (like Raj Rajaratnam), I'm sure Cohen would already be handcuffed by now, rotting in a jail cell.

 

He's smart/lucky to have not kept any meaningful trail that would incriminate himself - hence he created such a complex web of entities that mostly existed only to shield him from personal responsibility/liability, while concomitantly funnel all the profits back to him.

[siddharth18]

I don't think they would have admitted fraud and agreed to a $1.8B settlement if the govt didn't have something substantial.

 

From Yahoo http://finance.yahoo.com/news/us-govt-hedge-fund-giant-161712836.html

 

A prosecutor said at the time that evidence against the company was "voluminous" and included electronic messages, instant messages, court-ordered wiretaps and consensual recordings.

 

 

 

Do you believe that US is cutting Cohan any slack in this case? I think Bharara would really like to throw the book at Cohen but this is the best they can do with the scant evidence they have. If they had more damning/smoking-gun type evidence (like Raj Rajaratnam), I'm sure Cohen would already be handcuffed by now, rotting in a jail cell.

 

He's smart/lucky to have not kept any meaningful trail that would incriminate himself - hence he created such a complex web of entities that mostly existed only to shield him from personal responsibility/liability, while concomitantly funnel all the profits back to him.

 

Well I definitely think no party is doing each other a favor. The only evidence they have of Cohen is him acting negligently and failing to supervise his underlings even in the face of obvious insider information. According to the government, he knew (or should have known) that his staff were trading in insider information but he failed to prevent it. That's as far as they have gotten in terms of evidence.

 

As far as Rajaratnam, they had a lot more evidence. They had wiretaps of him actually asking/talking about nonpublic information. I don't think they had it on Cohen. Why else would he not have been arrested/jailed like Raj? A case like that is too easy to prove, don't you think?

 

I'm just guessing here, but I think - for SAC, even a trial of negligence would've been humiliating. Regardless of the final verdict, may be Cohen figured it was too much trouble to get involved in years of litigation and the public airing of dirty laundry. May be he was just happy to pay 10-20% of his wealth and put everything behind him and move on.

[Parsad]

You rob a bank - you lose your freedom (go to jail).

 

You rob market participants/investors to the tune of hundreds of millions (maybe even billions) by front-running/insider trading - you pay a fine and move on.

 

Yup, silly.  But the bank robber probably can't afford a cadre of lawyers to battle the government for another ten years.

 

 

Do you believe that US is cutting Cohan any slack in this case? I think Bharara would really like to throw the book at Cohen but this is the best they can do with the scant evidence they have. If they had more damning/smoking-gun type evidence (like Raj Rajaratnam), I'm sure Cohen would already be handcuffed by now, rotting in a jail cell.

 

He's smart/lucky to have not kept any meaningful trail that would incriminate himself - hence he created such a complex web of entities that mostly existed only to shield him from personal responsibility/liability, while concomitantly funnel all the profits back to him. That's why all his underlings go to jail while his capture is elusive, at best.

 

To think about what his actions mean for the economy and the world - it's mind boggling. A single person's machination that constantly and consistently embezzled the market participants by obtaining access to market-moving information ahead of all others and acquiring all the monetary benefit of bringing such efficiency, but unfairly.

 

For what little he has provided to the society, he now possesses the power to obtain goods/services and channel society's hard work/labor into pleasing his whims to the tune of $9,000,000,000.

 

 

Just look at his trades: Link

 

Yup, you are 100% correct.  But that $9B is a lot of money with which you can twist the courts and give yourself a decade or more before the worst happens.  I think they will turn Cohen fittingly into this decade's Milken.  He will fund minions while endeavouring in his philanthropic efforts.  A puppet-master for many puppets to come!  Cheers!

[nwoodman]

I am looking forward to to this

 

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/business-economy-financial-crisis/exclusive-watch-billionaire-steven-cohen-stumble-over-insider-trading-rules/

 

Coming this winter, FRONTLINE correspondent Martin Smith (The Untouchables, The Retirement Gamble, Money, Power and Wall Street) and producer Nick Verbitsky examine how prosecutors have set their sights on the hedge fund industry. In the process, they’ve dug into the operations and mind-set of billionaire hedge fund manager Steven A. Cohen.

 

FRONTLINE has exclusively obtained a video deposition in which Cohen, who is rarely seen on camera, addresses these issues. He describes federal insider trading laws as "vague," his firm's own trading rules as "general guidelines" and says he gives his traders latitude to use their judgment while making deals.