No litigator dominated headlines over the past week like Preet Bharara, the U.S. Attorney in Manhattan, whose office won the conviction of former SAC Capital Advisors employee Mathew Martoma after a closely-watched trial. The victory won’t silence those who say the 45-year-old prosecutor is either too tough or not tough enough on Wall Street defendants. But it’s hard to argue with Bharara’s record of convictions, which stands at a stunning 79-0 in insider trading cases.
As we reported, a federal jury in Manhattan reached a verdict on Feb. 6 that Martoma made illegal profits for SAC by trading stocks in drug companies based on insider information. The conviction followed a three-week trial that pitted attorneys in Bharara’s office against Martoma’s defense lawyers at Goodwin Procter, led by Richard Strassberg. Prosecutors Arlo Devlin-Brown and Eugene Ingoglia took the lead for the U.S. attorney’s office at trial.
