http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/01/08/former-sac-analyst-cooperates-in-insider-trading-case/
Former SAC Analyst Cooperates in Insider Trading Case
BY PETER LATTMANArticle Tools
A former analyst at SAC Capital Advisors, the hedge fund
owned by the billionaire investor Steven A. Cohen, has
given federal agents the names of about 20 people that
he said engaged in insider trading, according to a court
filing.
The disclosure of the extraordinary cooperation of the
former SAC analyst, Wesley Wang, emerged in a pleading filed by federal prosecutors. In a
letter to a judge, the government credited Mr. Wang with substantial assistance in its vast
insider trading crackdown.
In addition to the 20 names, the government said that information provided by Mr. Wang
has contributed to the criminal convictions of more than 10 people.
The letter, which was filed in connection with Mr. Wang’s sentencing, named 12 individuals
who have already been charged or identified in public as part of the broad investigation.
But the section that gave specifics about Mr. Wang’s help — and named other targets,
according to a person with knowledge of the letter — was heavily redacted.
Still, prosecutors emphasized that Mr. Wang’s help was still yielding fruit.
“The full extent of Wang’s information and cooperation remains to be fully realized,” the
government said in the filing. “Even taking into account what has been developed to date, it
is exceptional.”
Prosecutors praised Mr. Wang’s assistance in advance of the sentencing, which is scheduled
for Wednesday afternoon in Federal District Court in Manhattan. They urged Judge Jed. S.
Rakoff to hand down a lenient sentence. Government cooperators have been vital to
prosecutors in its insider trading investigation, which has resulted in the guilty pleas or
convictions of more than 70 individuals since mid-2009.
A lawyer for Mr. Wang, Michael Celio, declined to comment.
Mr. Wang is one of a number of former traders and analysts previously associated with SAC
Capital, which manages $14 billion and has one of the best investment track records on
Wall
Street. At least six former SAC employees have been tied to insider trading while at the
fund, which is based in Stamford, Conn. The most recent case — an indictment of a former
SAC portfolio manager Mathew Martoma — connects Mr. Cohen to questionable trades.
Mr. Cohen and SAC have not been charged with any wrongdoing, and Mr. Cohen has told
his employees and clients that he believes that he and the firm at all times acted
appropriately. The Securities and Exchange Commission has warned SAC that it may file a
civil action against it in connection with the Martoma case.
The case against Mr. Wang, a journeyman hedge fund analyst who spent just a couple of
years at SAC nearly a decade ago, has largely gone unnoticed.
A native of Taiwan, Mr. Wang, 39, of Berkeley, Calif., worked as a tech-stock analyst at the
SAC unit Sigma Capital from 2002 to 2005. The F.B.I. first learned about Mr. Wang’s
insider trading in 2008 from another cooperator. Agents approached him in early 2009 and
he almost immediately began cooperating, agreeing to wear a wire in meetings and also
recording telephone conversations with his Wall Street and corporate contacts.
“While these meetings caused Mr. Wang considerable stress, he nonetheless maintained his
composure throughout them,” the prosecutors wrote in the sentencing letter.
Last summer, Mr. Wang appeared in a federal court and entered a guilty plea, admitting to
leaking confidential information about technology stocks to a former Sigma portfolio
manager, Dipak Patel, and to the former head of Whitman Capital, Doug Whitman.
A jury convicted Mr. Whitman in August. He has yet to be sentenced. The government has
not charged Mr. Patel.
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