Mathew Martoma, the former SAC Capital Advisors trader convicted of insider trading in February, can no longer say he has a degree from Stanford Graduate School of Business.
In January, just as Mr. Martoma’s insider trial was getting underway, Stanford had confirmed that Mr. Martoma graduated from university with a master’s degree in business administration in 2003. But on Wednesday, a Stanford official said that Mr. Martoma no longer had a degree from the university.
Barbara Buell, a Stanford spokeswoman, said she could not discuss the change in degree status for Mr. Martoma, citing federal privacy laws. But Ms. Buell said that as a general policy, Stanford is vigilant in policing the integrity of its admission procedures.
“Stanford’s policy provides it can revoke an offer of acceptance and a degree, if it was found that an individual gained admission through false pretenses,†she said.
Mr. Martoma’s admission to Stanford in 2001 became an issue after it was revealed in court filings that the former hedge fund trader had been expelled from Harvard Law School in 1999 for forging his transcript. Stanford’s application for the graduate business program asks prospective students to provide information about any academic disciplinary actions taken against them, including suspensions or expulsions.
In January, a person familiar with Stanford’s admission process but not authorized to discuss it publicly said the expulsion of an applicant from another university, if it was disclosed on an application or otherwise known, would create a “serious impediment†to a candidate’s admission.
Lou Colasuonno, a spokesman for Mr. Martoma, declined to comment. The Wall Street Journal first reported that Stanford had stripped Mr. Martoma of his business degree.
Of course, the issue of whether Mr. Martoma can put a degree from Stanford on his résumé is not his biggest concern at the moment. Legal experts have said that the former trader is facing the prospect of being sentenced to as much as 10 years in prison after being convicted a month ago of taking part in the biggest insider trading scheme ever charged in the United States.
Last week, Mr. Martoma’s lawyers asked Judge Paul G. Gardephe of Federal District Court in Manhattan to either overturn the jury’s verdict or order a new trial. The lawyers argued that news coverage of the Harvard expulsion may have influenced some of the jurors, even though the matter was never introduced into evidence at the trial.
Jurors, as is customary, were instructed by Judge Gardephe not to read any news accounts of the trial. Mr. Martoma is scheduled to be sentenced in June.
