It’s not overly difficult in many instances to tell when the government has a continuing interest in either prosecuting an individual on criminal charges or bringing a civil lawsuit against that person for alleged wrongdoing in a corporate matter.
The long and winding road traversed by Steven A. Cohen is a case in point. Cohen might be a name familiar to many readers, since he has garnered front-page media coverage for several continuous years now in his role as founder and owner of one of the country’s top-performing hedge funds.
SAC Capital Advisors was established by Cohen in 1992 and has since earned, comparatively, top-shelf results for its investors.
It has also brought repeated claims by government regulators and prosecutors that Cohen is a suitable target for white collar crime investigations into the role he played in insider trading in his top position at the company. For some time now, both SEC regulators and investigators from the United Stated Department of Justice have been conducting probes into Cohen’s alleged engagement in wrongdoing at SAC.
Nothing has thus far come from those labors; Cohen has neither been indicted on any criminal charges nor been the subject of a civil lawsuit.
The probes are likely far from over, though, despite the failure to personally connect Cohen with any wrongdoing. In fact, the SEC filed an administrative action against Cohen just last week, alleging that that his supervision over company traders has been inadequate.
SAC strongly objects to that, as well as to the government’s continuing scrutiny of the company. A firm spokesperson states that SC “will fight this charge vigorously.”
The battle could be ongoing, given the unrelenting scrutiny of SAC. Several media outlets have noted the government’s continuing probes, with a Forbes Magazine article stating that “regulators and prosecutors have been trying to get Cohen” for several years.
As the magazine notes, “The battle between the government and Cohen goes on and on.”
Source: Forbes, “The government’s never ending war against billionaire trader Steve Cohen,” Nathan Vardi, July 19, 2013