Southern District U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara has lost his last chance to reverse a decision that makes it more difficult for prosecutors to win convictions in insider trading cases.

The U.S. Supreme Court denied the government's petition for a writ of certiorari in U.S. v. Newman, 13-1837, where the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in 2014 vacated the convictions of hedge fund portfolio managers Todd Newman and Anthony Chiasson (NYLJ, Dec. 11, 2014), based on their lack of knowledge on whether the tippers of the inside information received a personal benefit for its disclosure.

Bharara, in an afternoon conference call with reporters, said of the Second Circuit decision, “You can think of this as a potential bonanza for friends and family of rich people with access to material non-public information.”