Holder Confirms Government’s Insider Trading Probe

November 29, 2010 (PLANSPONSOR.com) – U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder confirmed Monday that the Justice Department is conducting a criminal investigation related to trading on Wall Street.

According to Bloomberg News, the Holder comments came in response to questions about the probe of insider trading during a news conference. Holder said an “investigation is ongoing” and described it as “very serious.”

“I don’t want to get into the details,” he said, according to Bloomberg. The investigation is being conducted by the U.S. attorney’s office in New York, he said.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation searched the offices of three hedge funds in New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts last week as the investigation became public. As part of the investigation, Steven A. Cohen’s Capital Advisors LP received a government subpoena for documents.

Federal Bureau of Investigation agents on November 22 searched the offices of Level Global Investors LP and Diamondback Capital Management LLC. Both firms were founded by former employees of Stamford, Connecticut-based SAC.  A third hedge fund, Boston-based Loch Capital Management, was searched the same day. The Massachusetts state pension fund has $65.6 million invested in two Connecticut hedge funds that were raided by the FBI.

U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara in Manhattan has been leading a crackdown on what he said in a speech this month was “rampant” insider trading on Wall Street and is devoting “significant resources” to the investigations, Bloomberg said.

The Massachusetts state pension fund has $65.6 million invested in two Connecticut hedge funds that were the subject of FBI raids (see Raided Hedge Funds Have MA State Pension Assets). 

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