Thomas Conheeney, who was president of Steven A. Cohen’s SAC Capital Advisors and later at Point72 Asset Management, announced his resignation Monday after playing an important role during the insider trading investigation.
Cohen’s former hedge fund, SAC Capital Advisors, has become the billionaire investor’s family office, Point72 Asset Management. Conheeney will be succeeded by Douglas Hayes, who was appointed earlier this year to the hedge fund firm’s executive committee.
Conheeney’s credentials
Conheeney joined SAC about 15 years ago and resigned Monday, capping a tenure marked by eight current or former employees who got convicted on criminal charges relating to insider trading. In an email, Mr. Cohen thanked Mr. Conheeney for helping navigate SAC through the insider trading investigation and the fallout from the financial crisis, which resulted in SAC’s only down year in its 22-year history. The firm has made about $1 billion this year.
Narrating the difficult times the firm had to undergo in the recent past and complementing the stellar role played by Conheeney, Mr. Cohen said: “The last few years have been the most difficult our firm has faced. The 2008 financial crisis and the 2010 aftershocks tested us, and just as we thought we were returning to ‘normal,’ we were rocked by revelations of insider trading by former employees. Tom’s leadership helped our firm survive these difficult times. We faced ordeals that would have put most other companies out of business.”
SAC’s settlement with SEC
In June, a U.S. judge granted final approval to a $602 million insider trading accord between a unit of billionaire Steven A Cohen’s SAC Capital Advisors LP and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. As part of the deal, SAC also agreed to cease managing outside capital.
However, Cohen still faces a civil case against him from the SEC for failure to supervise employees later found guilty of insider trading. Conheeney was among the SAC executives subpoenaed last year as part of the SEC’s probe into the firm, though he wasn’t accused of wrongdoing. Conheeney was an unconventional leader for a firm with the stature of SAC, which was once one of the most envied names in the hedge fund industry. His resignation announcement follows the departure of SAC’s chief operating officer, Solomon Kumin, and a number of traders and portfolio managers earlier this year .
