New York (HedgeCo.Net) – A former analyst for hedge fund Diamondback Capital Management claims that he received a bonus of over $2 million the same year his insider trading tips helped the hedge fund earn over $3.8 million. The hedge fund has been out of business since January 2013.
Jesse Tortora, according to Bloomberg, also alluded to a “Fight Club” mentality that ran through the firm’s management. “Rule number one about email list, there is no email list,” Tortora wrote in a March 2009 e-mail introducing a newcomer to the group (Bloomberg). “Rule number two, only data points can be sent, no sarcastic comments. Enjoy. Your perf[ormance] will go up by 100% in 2009 and your boss will love you. Game theory … look it up.”
“Game theory is the collection of individuals working together will exceed the individual working alone,” Tortora said in court. “So the sum of the parts collectively will be greater than the parts of the sum individually. That is why we decided to work together. It allowed us to be more effective, more efficient, and more profitable.”
Also charged by criminal authorities and sued by the SEC were Spyridon “Sam” Adondakis, an analyst for Anthony Chiasson; Danny Kuo, a vice president and fund manager at Whittier Trust Co.; Jon Horvath, a technology analyst at Sigma Capital Management; and Sandeep “Sandy” Goyal of mutual fund company Neuberger Berman Group LLC. All of those individuals have pled guilty and settled the SEC’s claims.
Tortora says that he was motivated to testify to get leniency in his own case. He is the first of 4 analysts to be witnesses for the prosecution. The case is U.S. v. Steinberg, 12-cr-00121, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).
Alex Akesson
For HedgeCo.net
alex@hedgeco.net
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