On Monday, Mr. Cohen and his wife attended the Metropolitan Museum of Art's annual Costume Institute gala, where he rubbed shoulders with rock stars Mick Jagger and quarterback Tom Brady. On Wednesday, is scheduled to speak, before President George W. Bush, at a conference of prominent hedge funds in Las Vegas. Earlier this year he made his first trip to Davos, Switzerland, World Economic Forum.
Forum, where he was seen dancing the night away at a private party.
And Mr. Cohen is an offer to buy a major stake in the New York Mets team owners.
Behind the scenes, life has been so much fun.
Federal prosecutors are examining the transactions in an account managed by Mr. Cohen, SAC Capital Advisors, the hedge fund in Stamford, Connecticut, which manages about $ 12 billion, according to a government statement. The trades were suggested by two SAC portfolio managers who have pleaded guilty to crimes related to insider trading. The charges are part of a vast research in insider trading in hedge funds by the U.S. attorney in Manhattan that has resulted in criminal cases against at least 47 people in the past two years.
Meanwhile, Senator Charles E. Grassley, R-Iowa, asked the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority in a letter April 26 to provide information about "the potential scope of suspicious trading activity" in the SAC.
For years, Mr. Cohen's company has been dogged by persistent rumors of a cowboy culture that is often approached the line, if not more, while the generation of drug returns, scores minted millionaire traders and Mr. Cohen make a millionaire many times over.
Earlier this year, the rumors grew stronger when SAC portfolio managers, Noah Freeman, admitted trading on illegal tips listed companies while working for Mr. Cohen and agreed to cooperate with the investigation government, leading to questions about whether Mr. Cohen himself and the company could become trapped.
Rick Maiman / Bloomberg News
Donald Longueuil, a former portfolio manager at SAC Capital, who pleaded to charges of misuse of inside information.
The other portfolio manager at SAC, Donald Longueuil, pleaded guilty last week.
"The most striking feature of SAC has always been its outstanding performance in the absence of an identifiable special sauce," said Sebastian Mallaby, author of "Money more than God," a book published last year in the history of hedge funds. "Charges like these call into question the legitimacy of the fund's investment process."
Neither SAC nor Mr. Cohen has been charged with any criminal offense and the company is cooperating with the government's investigation. The government's interest in trade of Mr. Cohen was previously reported by The Wall Street Journal.
Unlike many hedge funds that are managed by a portfolio manager who makes all investment decisions, SAC is decentralized, 142 small teams are each given control over a hundred million dollars to invest. Mr. Cohen brings talent, ambitious traders because it offers to pay each team as if running their own funds - without having to raise funds and run a business.
"You give a lot of autonomy - which is the playing field," said a former employee who requested anonymity because he did not want to hurt his relationship with Mr. Cohen. "I do not think that the fish stinks at the head of SAC? No. But is the business model that is difficult to keep the bad people doing bad things?" Yes. "
The signing of the unusual balkanized structure could ultimately isolate Mr. Cohen, of all allegations of insider trading. Most traders in the company to invest on their own with little direct involvement of Mr. Cohen, who manages less than 10 percent of fund capital. Both SAC portfolio managers who pleaded guilty to insider worked in two different satellite offices - Boston and Manhattan - and had little contact with Mr. Cohen in the two years he worked in the company.
Mr. Cohen, 54, who grew up in Great Neck, New York, Long Island, spends most of his time either at his desk in the middle of a large trading floor in what feels like a domed football stadium or in the corner office, where it has a range of therapeutic devices for back injury, including a massage table. From his desk, filled with computer screens, which manages its own portfolio, focusing primarily on health care, energy and industrial stocks. (Rarely operations technology stocks, which are at the heart of the vast government research on insider trading in hedge funds.) Also monitors the company's business and with the flick of a switch can be conducted on the video to the desktop of any merchant to ask questions about a particular position.
SAC former employees describe a company that preaches ethics and integrity, but also a sink-or-swim culture in which traders can be summarily dismissed for poor performance. Mr. Cohen, who was once known to berate workers with half the trading floor, requires what he calls a "down and out" the number of portfolio managers. That is, if portfolio managers lose a certain amount of money, the risk of being dismissed the company.
Mr. Cohen increase or decrease the money that each team operates on the basis of their performance. If a sales team is generating strong profits, Mr. Cohen often gives them more money to manage. The groups may struggle to see their allocation reduced.
SAC portfolio managers are known for pushing relentlessly sources of information on companies hoping to build what they call a "mosaic" for an investment advantage. Have incentives to share their best ideas with Mr. Cohen, and if they want to, you must complete an online form explaining the investment and the theory behind it. Every Sunday afternoon, Mr. Cohen speaks to his senior staff to grill them about their investment plans, but most of the daily operations of the firm was done without consulting him.
The teams are paid a percentage of the profits it generates in the SAC, which, including its obligations to banks, has a staggering $ 39 billion in total purchasing power. The more money running a team, the greater the potential compensation that team. Top traders can earn tens of millions of dollars annually.
"It's a culture of Darwin and the pressure packed with a ridiculous amount of money involved," said another former employee, who requested anonymity because he did not want to spoil relations with the company.
In a letter sent to investors in February when two former portfolio managers were arrested, Mr. Cohen wrote: "If the government's accusations are true, the actions of these former employees are serious violations of our policies and standards incompatible with our ethics and compliance culture. Any offense that may have been committed by an individual or individuals is not a reflection of our organization or the integrity of our more than 850 employees. "
In recent years, the SAC has implemented a compliance program to monitor the activities of the company and has had as lawyers L. Harvey Pitt, former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, speaks to employees of the company.
"Hey, we have strengthened our compliance," Mr. Cohen said the magazine Vanity Fair last year. However, he allowed, "This was a learning process."
He explained that back in the 1990's, "you have to remember that they were younger. Things were different then."
The firm has been under a cloud since a former employee, Richard Choo-Beng Lee, pleaded guilty in 2009 of insider trading and began to assist the government in its investigation. Confessed the crimes were committed after his departure from the SAC, but agreed to provide information about his five years with the company, which ended in 2004.
The United States attorney in Manhattan has twice issued subpoenas requesting records SAC trading company. And late last year, F.B.I. Agents raided two large hedge funds owned by former SAC traders superior.
Mr. Cohen has refused to comment on the investigation of insider trading. It has also been at least two other instances of federal authorities, citing the illegal trade by traders with connections to SAC.
In 2009 federal prosecutors criminally an investment banker with providing illegal tips merger and acquisition agreements, a hedge fund analyst with no name listed in the information. The analyst, who generated $ 3.5 million in revenues for his company, was Jonathan Hollander, a former SAC employee, according to a person with direct knowledge of the case, who did not speak publicly about it.
Mr. Hollander's lawyer, Aitan D. Goelman, declined comment. The government dismissed the complaint against the investment banker and has not charged Mr. Hollander to the charges.
Earlier this year, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed civil charges against insider trading Robert Feinblatt, who started his own hedge fund after leaving the CAE in 2002. Mr. Feinblatt does not return phone calls seeking comment.
Amid the distractions, Mr. Cohen continues the fight against long-standing stereotype that is a hedge fund manager beating that never leaves her lair trade. He and his wife have intensified their philanthropy, recently donated $ 50 million to fund child care for the Cohen Center in Long Island. He appears frequently at art fairs, which seeks to add to a collection of first class paintings by artists such as Pablo Picasso and Andy Warhol.
Before a packed banquet room at the Waldorf Astoria hotel, Mr. Cohen recently sat for an interview of one hour in an investment conference sponsored by a research firm Wall Street.
The interviewer was a titan of hedge fund peers, Paul Tudor Jones, who failed to ask questions about officials' abuse of privileged information.
Instead, he asked Mr. Cohen about his perspective on the market.
"Under the populations are exploding, and all I'm seeing today looks optimistic," he said. "I'm not going to be negative for the sake of being negative."
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