Steven A. Cohen has received a subpoena to testify before a grand jury in a U.S. government insider trading investigation into his hedge fund SAC Capital Advisors, the New York Times reported, citing lawyers and executives briefed on the case.
_0">Other SAC executives also received similar subpoenas and the fund itself has received requests for information about its activities, the lawyers and executives told the New York Times.
Jonathan Gasthalter, a spokesman for SAC, declined to comment to the New York Times about the subpoenas.
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Nine current or former SAC employees have so far been charged with or implicated in insider-trading while working at Cohen's fund. In March, the firm agreed to pay a $616 million penalty to settle a lawsuit arising from one of the investigations.
A former federal prosecutor, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said it was not common to seek grand jury testimony from individuals who may be a focus of an investigation, indicating a possible weakness in the government's case against SAC.
SAC Capital Advisors, a $15 billion fund, told investors on Friday it would no longer cooperate "unconditionally" with the U.S. government's insider trading investigation. It also said it believes the next few months would be critical in the investigation.
An executive with Blackstone Group, the largest outside investor in SAC Capital with about $500 million in client money in the hedge fund, declined to comment on the firm's Friday letter. Outside investors have submitted notices to withdraw $1.7 billion from the hedge fund so far this year because of the insider trading investigation.
SAC Capital and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission could not immediately be reached for comment by Reuters outside of regular U.S. business hours.
(Reporting by Matthew Goldstein in New York and Sakthi Prasad in Bangalore; editing by Miral Fahmy)