SEC Settles Insider Trading Charges With Pequot and CEO Samberg

委员会为内幕交易钉了另一次一次性对冲基金。

In an on-again, off-again probe, the SEC Thursday charged Pequot Capital Management and its Chairman and CEO Arthur Samberg with insider trading in Microsoft securities. Pequot and Samberg agreed to pay nearly $28 million to settle the SEC's charges.

The SEC separately brought an enforcement action against David Zilkha, a former Microsoft employee who later worked at Pequot for allegedly tipping the firm and Samberg with nonpublic information about Microsoft's earnings. "The cases have two particularly troubling aspects — a hedge fund manager trading on illegal insider information, and his tipper source who withheld crucial information about the scheme during an SEC investigation," said Robert Khuzami, Director of the SEC's Division of Enforcement, in a statement. "Both are high-priority targets for SEC Enforcement."

The SEC's complaint alleges that in April 2001 amid rumors Microsoft would miss its earnings estimates for the quarter that had just ended, Samberg sought information from Zilkha, who had just accepted an offer from Samberg to work at Pequot.

The regulator said Zilkha quickly reached out to a Microsoft colleague, who sent him an e-mail stating that the company would meet or beat its earnings estimates for the quarter. According to the SEC's complaint, Zilkha then conveyed to Samberg his understanding that Microsoft would meet or beat its earnings estimates. Samberg then traded in Microsoft on behalf of funds managed by Pequot. Pequot funds made more than $14 million as a result of the illegal trading by Pequot and Samberg, according to the SEC.

Pequot and Samberg agreed to settle the SEC's charges without admitting or denying the SEC's allegations against them. Pequot and Samberg agreed to pay a total of nearly $18 million in disgorgement of trading profits and prejudgment interest as well as $10 million in penalties. With the exception of certain activities aimed solely at winding down Pequot, Samberg also has agreed to be barred from association with an investment adviser.

The SEC noted that in January 2009, the regulator first received direct evidence that Zilkha had material, nonpublic information about Microsoft — when the SEC staff was provided copies of e-mails that had been located on a computer hard drive that was then in the possession of Zilkha's ex-wife.

Samberg, 69, founded the Pequot Partners fund in 1986 while he was a partner at Dawson-Samberg Capital Management with Jonathan T. Dawson. They broke up their partnership in 1998, and Samberg founded Pequot Capital Management. Then, in 2001 he split with his number two person, Daniel Benton, who launched Andor Capital Management. They roughly divided $15 billion in assets.

In the late 1990s, Samberg was widely regarded as one of the hedge fund industry’s biggest names. However, he lost some of the luster over the past decade, and the insider trading probe further eroded his image.

证券对PEQUOT的调查非常有争议。2005年，SEC射击了加里Aguirre，他正在寻找Pequot探测器。Aguirre声称，美国委员会阻止他采访了约翰麦克麦克，了解在GE Capital和Heller Financial之间的2001年合并中向Pequot提供内幕信息。

自2001年以来，2004年在2004年在瑞士信贷集团工作后，马克在PEQUOS曾在PEQUOS上度过了一个月。2005年6月，他成为摩根士丹利的首席执行官和摩根士丹利主席。

In December 2006, the SEC closed the investigation of Samberg and Mack without finding any wrongdoing. The SEC subsequently launched a new investigation of Samberg and Zilkha. In 2009, Samberg closed down Pequot.

Stephen Taub , who has covered the hedge fund industry for 30 years, is a contributing editor to Institutional Investor andAbsolute Return-Alphamagazines.