Hedge-fund manager Cohen settles with US commodities agency

WASHINGTON (AP) — Billionaire hedge-fund manager Steven A. Cohen, who was earlier accused of failing to prevent insider trading at his firm, has agreed in a settlement with the government not to engage in any activities overseen by federal commodities regulators until at least Dec. 31, 2017.

The settlement announced Tuesday by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission follows on the action brought against Cohen by the Securities and Exchange Commission over insider trading at his firm, formerly called SAC Capital Advisors.

Federal prosecutors had accused SAC Capital, one of the biggest and most successful hedge funds, of engaging in illegal insider trading on an epic scale, saying its founder and owner Cohen enabled the misconduct.

Prosecutors said Martoma earned the $9 million bonus after persuading a medical professor to leak secret data from a trial of a potential breakthrough Alzheimer's drug between 2006 and 2008.