The hedge fund billionaire and trader Steven A. Cohen has bought and sold many things: stocks and bonds, modern art and sprawling real estate. But lately, the founder of SAC Capital Advisors appears to be doing more selling than buying.
One of his holdings that he recently put up for sale, a multimillion-dollar luxury duplex in Manhattan, has not gone easily. Mr. Cohen has slashed $17 million off the price of the One Beacon Court apartment, which was listed on the market in the spring. It is now on sale for $98 million.
The four-bedroom, five-and-a-half bathroom apartment, which has expansive views of Central Park and has Venetian plaster walls and stainless steel surfaces, was designed by the Modernist architect Charles Gwathmey. The residential and commercial building also boasts Beyonce as a resident, and Bloomberg L.P.
Mr. Cohen raised eyebrows recently with another sale. In November, he sold around $88 million of artworks at an auction at Sotheby’s, including Warhols and a Gerhard Richter â€" the single largest number of works Mr. Cohen, an avid collector, has sold at one time.
The sale of real estate and art come at a difficult time for Mr. Cohen, who is worth $9.4 billion according to Forbes. Mr. Cohen’s SAC Capital has been the subject of a decade-long investigation into insider trading that has seen six of its former employees pleaded guilty.
Michael Steinberg, another employee, was found guilty by a jury in December, just weeks after SAC Capital reached a deal with the government to plead guilty to securities fraud, pay a $1.2 billion fine and close its doors to outside investors. The insider trading trial of another former SAC Capital employee, Mathew Martoma, is set to begin Jan. 6 in Manhattan.
Earlier this week, the hedge fund told investors it made a 20.10 percent gain in 2013, outpacing most of its hedge rivals in what has been a lackluster year for the industry.
News of the sale was first reported by The New York Daily News.
