A federal judge on Monday granted a former employee of the hedge fund SAC Capital Advisors additional time to review the government’s evidence in an insider trading case brought against him.
Mathew Martoma, a former SAC portfolio manager, was given 90 days to examine millions of pages of documents related to the case. Judge Paul Gardephe scheduled another hearing for June 5, and said that he then will set a trial date.
The government has placed Mr. Martoma at the center of what it calls the most lucrative insider-trading scheme ever charged. He was arrested in November and accused of corrupting a doctor who had access to secret drug data, and then using that information to help SAC gain profits and avert losses totaling $276 million.
Mr. Martoma’s case has received heightened interested because he collaborated with Mr. Cohen on the questionable trades, prosecutors said. Mr. Cohen, 56, has not been charged, and there is no allegation that he knew the information was confidential. He hs said that he had at all times acted appropriately.
The prosecution of Mr. Martoma is the latest criminal case involving SAC, which manages about $15 billion, boasts one of the best investment track records on Wall Street. At least eight current or former SAC employees have been linked to insider trading while working at the fund, four of whom have pleaded guilty. And investors have grown concerned as the fund’s legal problems have intensified â€" SAC clients asked to withdraw $1.7 billion from the fund last month.
During Tuesday’s hearing, Mr. Martoma’s lawyer, Charles Stillman, said that the government had turned over four million documents, including 17,000 alone in recent days.
“I’d like to propose you give us 90 days to finish our analysis,†Mr. Stillman said to Judge Gardephe, according to Bloomberg News. “The case was announced as the biggest insider trading case in history. If it is the biggest case, I want to be able to defend it.â€
