Issue of the week: The feds home in on Steven Cohen
The government has launched an insider-trading investigation against SAC Capital.
A free daily digest of the biggest news stories of the day - and the best features from our website
Thank you for signing up to TheWeek. You will receive a verification email shortly.
There was a problem. Please refresh the page and try again.
Hedge-fund giant Steven Cohen is in the feds’ crosshairs, said Patricia Hurtado and Katherine Burton in Bloomberg.com. U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara has extracted guilty pleas from several former employees of Cohen’s $13 billion SAC Capital, and that could lead to ominous consequences for Cohen himself. Two former traders, Noah Freeman and Donald Longueuil, have confessed to insider trading while working for SAC. Some of their ill-gotten stocks may have ended up in an account Cohen set up to capture “the best trading ideas unearthed” by his traders, who are free to pursue their own strategies and are richly rewarded when they pan out. For now, “Cohen probably has nothing to worry about,” said John Carney in CNBC.com. Even if Longueuil and Freeman bought tainted stocks for Cohen’s account, prosecutors still have to prove that he knew they had been purchased after “illegal tips.” Still, I’m sure Cohen “would very much like to stop seeing SAC Capital in the same headlines as the phrase ‘illegal trading.’”
Maybe so, but it clearly takes more than a measly insider-trading investigation to keep Cohen from living large, said Peter Lattman and Andrew Ross Sorkin in The New York Times. Last week, the once-secretive hedge-fund operator attended a gala at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, where he “rubbed elbows with the rock star Mick Jagger and the quarterback Tom Brady.” Earlier this year he attended his first World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where he was seen “dancing the night away at a private party.” In December, at the Basel art fair, he dropped $300,000 on two artworks in five minutes—pocket change for Cohen, whose $8 billion net worth earns him the No. 35 spot on Forbes magazine’s U.S. rich list. And he’s bidding to buy 49 percent of the New York Mets from their financially beleaguered owners. That’s hardly the behavior one would expect from a man who feels the hot breath of federal prosecutors on his neck.
As a fan of the hapless Mets, I’m rooting for Cohen to escape prosecution, said Stephen Taub in Institutional Investor. “Just think of the possibilities if the Mets were owned by one of the most aggressive stock market traders around.” He’d hire “a crack code breaker” to steal opposing teams’ signs. He’d swing “high-profile trades involving unlikely individuals.” And if a big-ticket player failed to perform, Cohen wouldn’t “stubbornly hang on to him to save face.” In fact, as one of “the biggest control people on this planet,” Cohen is unlikely to stop with a minority stake in the franchise; he’ll want to go all the way. Hey, a Mets fan can dream, can’t he?
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Continue reading for free
We hope you're enjoying The Week's refreshingly open-minded journalism.
Subscribed to The Week? Register your account with the same email as your subscription.
Sign up to our 10 Things You Need to Know Today newsletter
A free daily digest of the biggest news stories of the day - and the best features from our website
-
Guide to Sedona, Arizona
A sanctuary for nature lovers, Sedona offers a relaxing escape
By Catherine Garcia Published
-
Is 'The Office' coming back? What we know about a rumored reboot.
Under the Radar The classic NBC sitcom may soon be returning
By Brendan Morrow Published
-
What Slovakia's pro-Russia election result means for Ukraine
Speed Read The victory of former Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico's populist Smer party has raised concerns of waning support for Kyiv in Western democracies
By Peter Weber Published
-
Dianne Feinstein, history-making Democratic US senator, dies at 90
The Explainer Her colleagues celebrate her legacy as a trailblazer who cleared the path for other women to follow
By Theara Coleman Published
-
Will the cannabis banking bill get the Senate's green light?
Talking Point The SAFER Banking Act is advancing to the US Senate for the first time, clearing a major hurdle for legal cannabis businesses. Does it stand a chance?
By Theara Coleman Published
-
Trump surrenders in Georgia election subversion case
Speed Read
By Catherine Garcia Published
-
Rep. Hakeem Jeffries chosen to succeed Pelosi as leader of House Democrats
Speed Read
By Brigid Kennedy Published
-
GOP leader Kevin McCarthy's bid for House speaker may really be in peril
Speed Read
By Peter Weber Published
-
Are China's protests a real threat for Beijing?
opinion The sharpest opinions on the debate from around the web
By Harold Maass Published
-
Who is Nick Fuentes, the white nationalist who dined with Trump and Kanye?
Speed Read From Charlottesville to Mar-a-Lago in just five years
By Rafi Schwartz Published
-
Jury convicts Oath Keepers Stewart Rhodes, Kelly Meggs of seditious conspiracy in landmark Jan. 6 verdict
Speed Read
By Peter Weber Published