A jury of seven women and five men was selected on Thursday to determine whether Mathew Martoma, a former SAC Capital Advisors hedge fund manager, is guilty of engaging in what the government has called the biggest insider trading scheme in history.
The final alternate jurors were chosen late in the afternoon in Federal District Court in Lower Manhattan, capping what was a long and arduous third day of jury selection, and paving the way for opening statements to begin on Friday.
The jurors, who come from the Bronx, Manhattan and Westchester and Rockland counties, are a mixed group that includes a chief executive for the Jones Group, a shoe and accessory company that was recently bought by the private equity firm Sycamore Partners, and a New York City Transit bus operator.
Mr. Martoma, dressed in a dark grey suit and a dark blue tie with stripes, stared ahead as Judge Paul G. Gardephe read out the names of the jurors on Thursday afternoon. Earlier in the day, Mr. Martoma appeared more relaxed as he talked with his wife, Rosemary.
Ms. Martoma, who is a pediatrician, spent much of Wednesday and Thursday writing notes about the candidates. When Mr. Martoma’s lawyers, Richard M. Strassberg and Robert Braceras, began to discuss which potential candidates they planned to strike from their final list, Ms. Martoma joined them, occasionally flipping through her notes.
Some of the jurors have training in law and finance. One juror said she was an insurance underwriter for AIG, while another has a law degree and works at the accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers. Another juror is an employment and labor lawyer who said his firm’s work included internal investigations for corporations related to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
Mr. Martoma has been accused of seeking confidential information about the clinical trials for an Alzheimer’s drug and making trades in Wyeth and Elan based on that information. The trades helped the firm to avoid losses and generate profits totaling $276 million.
His trial is part of a decade-long investigation by the Justice Department into insider trading at SAC Capital. Last month, a 12-member jury convicted Michael S. Steinberg, the highest ranking employee at SAC Capital to stand trial. Six former traders have pleaded guilty and in November, SAC Capital agreed to pay $1.2 billion and plead guilty to five counts of insider trading violations.
