The SAC Capital probe has deepened after a mole at the hedge fund added evidence that implicates another former SAC employee to the government’s investigation. The Wall Street Journal reports that the government informant told investigators that Dipak Patel, a prominent former SAC trader, traded confidential tips about stocks with her for several years.
Last month, it was revealed that SAC Capital is sharing documents with Mathew Martoma, the latest SAC employee to be officially charged. In all, seven former SAC employees have either been convicted or plead guilty to charges of insider trading since 2009. Four others are cooperating with authorities.
The probe into SAC Capital’s trading practices has been going on for years, but intensified in November when Cohen himself was said to have interacted with Martoma, who now faces insider trading charges.
The mole who reportedly implicated Patel, who we now know is Reema Shah, was a technology specialist for the mutual fund management company J&W Seligman & Co. She entered a guilty plea on a charge of trading inside tips with a former Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) executive back in May. Her relationship with Patel hasn’t been disclosed until now. Patel has not been charged or accused of wrongdoing. He worked under SAC founder, Steve Cohen, until his 2010 departure.
Shah has been cooperating with the federal investigation since 2009, continuing to work at the mutual fund company for over a year while serving as an informant. A spokesperson for Seligman said Shah’s actions “were clear violations” of their privacy policies and “a breach of our clients’ and the company’s trust.”
Shaw signed a plea agreement prior to pleading guilty, covering her role in five different conspiracies between the years of 2004 and 2009. One of the five conspiracies she acknowledged involved trading insider information with Patel.
