The 'I Don't Remember' Files, Part II: Hedge Fund Chief Stevie Cohen
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By Matt Taibbi at Rolling Stone
Since we already had some fun with one mega-rich yabo with a memory problem earlier this week, it seemed appropriate to shine a light on another "fuzzy memory" story that's come down the pipe.
It seems Stevie Cohen, the oft-maligned hedge fund billionaire who has been whispered about for years on the fringes of various market-manipulation cases, is finally about to have the net thrown over him for his involvement in an insider trading mess centered around two medical companies, Elan and Wyeth. Cohen, it seems, sold off about $700 million in stock in those two firms just days before news leaked out about bad drug trial results that caused those stocks to crater. Cohen allegedly saved himself about $276 million on the trade.
Cohen apparently decided to sell after speaking to one of his fund managers, Matthew Martoma, after Martoma spoke with a doctor who broke the news about the trials for an experimental Alzheimer's drug. After speaking with the doc, Martoma told Cohen he was "no longer comfortable" with his boss's nearly billion-dollar investment (I'll bet he wasn't!). The Financial Times today released a new story, about testimony Cohen reportedly gave to the SEC on the subject earlier this year:
The Securities and Exchange Commission took Mr Cohen's testimony earlier this year, thought to be his first explanation for SAC's trading of shares of Elan and Wyeth that were made days before the companies announced negative clinical drug trial results that sent their stocks tumbling.
People familiar with the interview say Mr Cohen's memory was otherwise vague and that he could recall few details of the content of a 20-minute phone conversation, held in 2008, with Mathew Martoma, the portfolio manager who allegedly told Mr Cohen he was not comfortable with the position.
Keep reading: The 'I Don't Remember' Files, Part II: Hedge Fund Chief Stevie Cohen | | Rolling Stone.
