The firm for Steven A. Cohen is going to pay $615.7 million to settle charges that the firm improperly traded in two stocks, according to Reuters. This is the largest insider trading settlement in history, according to U.S. securities regulators.
The firm is SAC Capital Advisors. George Canellos, the acting director of the SEC enforcement division, said that the settlement “does not preclude the future filing of additional charges against any person, including Steve Cohen, who is not named as a defendant in these cases.”
The settlement includes two subsidiaries of SAC: CR Intrinsic has agreed to pay $601.7 million to settle claims that a former employee took part in an scheme of insider trading that involved shares of Elan Corp and Wyeth Inc. Sigma Capital has agreed to pay $13.9 million to settle charges that the firm took part in insider trading in shares of Dell Inc and Nvidia Corp.
The entire settlement payout is close to four times the biggest previous sanction from an SEC insider trading case. That payment was the $156 million made by the Galleon Group and founder Raj Rajaratnam.
By agreeing to the settlement, SAC Capital and its subsidiaries did not admit to wrongdoing or denied it either.
“This settlement is a substantial step toward resolving all outstanding regulatory matters and allows the firm to move forward with confidence,” SAC said in a statement. Cohen “has not been charged with any wrongdoing and has done nothing wrong.”