The insider trading trial of Mathew Martoma, the former SAC Capital Advisors portfolio manager, has been delayed by two months, a federal judge said on Tuesday.
Judge Paul Gardephe of Federal District Court in Manhattan postponed the start date of Mr. Martoma’s trial to Jan. 6 from Nov. 4.
Mr. Martoma’s lawyer, Richard Strassburg, requested the extension because of a conflict with another trial. He is representing Bank of
America in a trial that began on Tuesday and is expect to last as long as six weeks.
Federal prosecutors have charged Mr. Martoma with receiving confidential data from two doctors about drugs being developed by the pharmaceutical companies Elan and Wyeth and trading on it. Prosecutors contends that the tips Mr. Martoma received about clinical tests allowed SAC to earn profits and avoid losses totaling $276 million.
Meanwhile, the trial of another former SAC portfolio manager, Michael S. Steinberg, is scheduled for Nov. 18 and is not expected to be delayed. Eleven former SAC employees have either been charged with or implicated in illegal trading while at the fund; of those, five have admitted guilt.
In July, Preet Bharara, the United States attorney in Manhattan, brought criminal charges against SAC, calling the fund “a magnet for market cheaters.†That followed a civil action brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission against SAC’s owner, Steven A. Cohen, accusing him of failing to reasonably supervise his employees, including Mr. Martoma and Mr. Steinberg. Mr. Cohen has denied the government’s accusations and said that he has acted appropriately at all times.
Also Tuesday, Judge Gardephe froze the Florida home and other assets of Mr. Martoma. Federal prosecutors had argued that Mr. Martoma’s assets, including his home, a roughly $2 million house in Boca Raton, were fruits of his supposed crimes. If convicted, the government will attempt to seize his home and more than $4 million in his bank accounts.
The judge’s order, which was agreed to by the government and the defense, prohibits Mr. Martoma from transferring his assets while he awaits trial. He was in court on Tuesday, accompanied by his wife and a large legal team from Mr. Strasberg’s firm, Goodwin Procter.
After Judge Gardephe set the new Jan. 6 trial date, Mr. Strassburg made another request for an extension, asking to push it back another week, to Jan. 13. Given that the new date was so close to the Christmas and New Year’s holidays, Mr. Strassburg argued, it would be difficult to prepare witnesses.
Judge Gardephe said he would check his calendar to see if he could accommodate the request.
After the brief hearing, held in the old federal courthouse building on Foley Square, Mr. Strassburg hustled around the corner to the new federal courthouse building for jury selection in the Bank of America trial. That case, which is being heard before Judge Jed S. Rakoff, is a civil action brought by federal prosecutors related to its Countrywide unit and accusation that it defrauded the government’s mortgage agencies, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
