At an SAC Parade Party, All Blown Up but No Where to Go

In finance, balloons are classic symbols of both growth and collapse. So when SAC Capital Advisors, the embattled hedge fund run by the billionaire Steven A. Cohen, sponsored a balloon-inflation party on Saturday in its hometown, Stamford, Conn., it was a particularly striking image.

As Kesha’s “Die Young” blasted from loudspeakers and hip-hop dance groups performed in frigid temperatures, industrial air pumps inflated 16 giant balloons of characters including Elmo, the Cookie Monster and Kermit the Frog.

The helium balloons, essentially Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade-style floats, were supposed to be the main feature of a parade on Sunday that is sponsored by the Swiss bank UBS. But high winds forced organizers to ground the balloons on Sunday before the annual event, which brought out an estimated 100,000 local and area residents, mostly families with children.

SAC, which pleaded guilty this month to federal insider-trading charges and agreed to pay a $1.2 billion fine, was barely visible at the pre-parade festivities it has sponsored for years. Under its settlement with the government, the firm will no longer manage money for outside investors. One former manager is standing trial on insider-trading charges and another is scheduled to do so. And questions have been swirling over whether UBS, which has trading floors the size of football fields in Stamford, will stay in the city when its lease expires in 2017.

Those less-than-festive elements appeared to cast a shadow on the balloon-inflation party on Saturday. A low-key “SAC Hospitality Tent,” open only to SAC employees and their families and event organizers, stood along a wind-whipped block. In the early afternoon, the only occupants were private security guards, food servers and two hired men, one dressed as Santa and the other, a dwarf, as an elf. “You can’t go in here - they’ll be drinking, and nobody is going to talk to you,” said an older security guard in a black jacket who declined to provide his name.

By drinking he meant juice, at least in part, as evidenced by a table of children’s juice boxes visible through the tent’s clear plastic windows. Other tables sported bottles of white wine in blue tubs. Coffee, hot cocoa and a steamer-tray buffet with macaroni and cheese, eggplant and pizza snaked around the side - a far cry from the lavish parties Mr. Cohen is known for throwing at his estate in East Hampton.

Even Stamford Downtown, the nonprofit organizer of the weekend event, was in a less-than-celebratory mood. When asked if there were any SAC employees with whom a reporter could speak, Annette Einhorn, the organizer’s director of events and marketing, replied, “There are no executives here.” She swiftly brought over a Stamford police captain to emphasize her point.

An hour later, when asked if he would talk about the event, an SAC employee pushing a baby stroller into the tent snapped, “No thanks.”

Sandra Goldstein, the president of Stamford Downtown, later said that the event “was a happy, joyous celebration for the town of Stamford.” The parade, a city mainstay for 20 years, featured clowns, marching bands and a snaking Chinese dragon, along with Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, Senator Richard Blumenthal and Representative Jim Himes.

Despite the setbacks, Jonathan Gasthalter, a spokesman for SAC Capital, said the hedge fund would “continue to support the parade - it is a wonderful event for the local community.”

Karina Byrne, a UBS spokeswoman, said, “UBS is proud to sponsor the parade, as we support the community of Stamford, where many of us live and work.”