Steven Cohen tied to insider trading case

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NEW YORK, Nov. 20 (UPI) -- Billionaire Steven Cohen is involved in a multimillion dollar insider trading scheme, a court complaint unsealed in New York Tuesday says.

Cohen, the founder of SAC Capital Advisors, is not named in the complaint, The Wall Street Journal reported. But he is implicated in the scheme, with references in the complaint to "Portfolio Manager A," which is Cohen, the Journal said.

The case is alleged to be the most profitable insider trading scheme on record. It involves portfolio manager Mathew Martoma at SAC Capital affiliate CR Intrinsic Investors, who allegedly paid Dr. Sidney Gilman, a neurology professor, to advise the firm on progress being made on a drug for Alzheimer's disease being developed by Elan Corp. and Wyeth, two firms that are now owned by Pfizer Inc.

The doctor allegedly met with Martoma over an 18-month stretch. When he allegedly provided the investor with confidential information that the drug was not doing well in evaluations, the firms reaped $276 million by selling pharmaceutical company shares short.

Both civil and criminal complaints have been filed in the case, although the doctor has been charged only in the case filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Journal said.

The SEC complaint says "Portfolio Manager A" authorized several trades based on the information provided by Martoma, often allowing his information to trump the advice given to him from other managers.