By Reuters - A federal judge agreed to accept SAC Capital Advisors' guilty plea to fraud charges in the U.S. government's insider trading case against the hedge fund firm controlled by billionaire Steven A. Cohen.
U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain said she will accept the plea at a Thursday hearing in Manhattan federal court.
She is also expected to decide at the hearing whether to accept SAC Capital's agreement to pay a $900 million fine in its
settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice, as part of an overall $1.8 billion payout to resolve criminal and civil litigation.
Prosecutors have called the deal the largest insider trading settlement in U.S. history, in a case that resulted in a rare guilty plea by a large company.
The sentencing marks the end of an era for SAC Capital, a hedge fund that last year managed $15 billion but found itself in federal investigators' cross-hairs. Eight employees have pleaded guilty or been convicted at trial for insider trading.
An indictment unveiled in July alleged systemic insider trading took place at SAC Capital involving the stocks of more than 20 publicly-traded companies from 1999 through 2010.
SAC Capital agreed in November to plead guilty to four counts of securities fraud and one count of wire fraud.
The $900 million penalty would come on top of a $900 million judgment approved in November by a different judge in a related civil forfeiture case.
That judgment gave SAC Capital credit for $616 million in earlier insider trading settlements with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, resulting in SAC Capital paying an additional $1.2 billion as part of the criminal accord.
Under its plea agreement, SAC Capital also agreed to be placed on probation for five years, and employ a consultant.
Renamed Point72 Asset Management on Monday, the Stamford, Connecticut-based firm is shifting toward becoming a so-called family office to primarily manage Cohen's personal fortune, most recently estimated by Forbes magazine at $11.1 billion.
The case is U.S. v. SAC Capital Advisors LP, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 13-cr-00541.