© 2024 Kansas City Public Radio
NPR in Kansas City
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Hedge Fund Pleads Not Guilty To Fraud Charges

Prosecutors said a large volume of evidence including electronic messages, court-ordered wiretaps and consensual recordings is stacked against a Connecticut-based hedge fund that pleaded not guilty Friday to criminal charges accusing it of letting insider trading flourish for more than a decade.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Antonia Apps told a federal judge in Manhattan that investigators had “voluminous” evidence against SAC Capital Advisors, a Stamford, Conn.-based firm owned by billionaire Steven A. Cohen.

She said the evidence included “electronic messages, instant messages, court-ordered wiretaps and consensual recordings.”

The plea was entered by Peter Nussbaum, SAC’s longtime general counsel, and came a day after the company was charged with wire and securities fraud, accused of making hundreds of millions of dollars illegally. Federal prosecutors described a culture at SAC that permitted, if not encouraged, insider trading.

Prosecutors said the victims were large companies whose inside information was stolen and traded upon. The next hearing was set for Sept. 24.

Guest

  • Marty Schenker, executive editor at Bloomberg. He tweets @mschenker.

Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Bloomberg
KCUR prides ourselves on bringing local journalism to the public without a paywall — ever.

Our reporting will always be free for you to read. But it's not free to produce.

As a nonprofit, we rely on your donations to keep operating and trying new things. If you value our work, consider becoming a member.