Hedge fund billionaire Steve Cohen is crying “uncle” — Uncle Sam, that is.
The embattled founder of behemoth hedge fund SAC Capital Advisors recently approached federal prosecutors about a sweeping settlement of its criminal case against the firm and its civil case against him, according to a report.
The stakes are high for the 57-year-old investor — perhaps the best-known and most successful hedge fund manager in the country.
Losing the criminal case — US Attorney Preet Bharara, in announcing the case in July, called SAC “a magnet for market cheaters” — could cripple the firm.
The civil case brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission could result in Cohen, worth about $9 billion, being barred from the securities industry for life.
Perhaps that is why settlement talks include a fine reflective of those high stakes — $1 billion, according to a report by Bloomberg.
If Cohen succeeds in hashing out a deal — with, perhaps, a sweetener of not managing outside investments — he would still walk away with around $7 billion of his own money to manage, thus allowing him to continue trading.
Word of Cohen’s lawyers reaching out to Bharara were met with some skepticism from at least one government source who told The Post, “There isn’t any truth” to reports of a deal.
Brian Brook, a criminal defense lawyer in New York not associated with the SAC case, said settlement talks in such cases are not unusual — but noted that it’s rare for a defendant in a criminal matter to approach the government so early in the process.
“Normally the settlement gets better as you get closer to trial,” so defendants like to wait until the last possible moment to discuss a deal, he said.
A spokeswoman for Bharara declined to comment, as did a spokeswoman for the FBI. Jonathan Gasthalter, a spokesman for SAC, also declined to comment.
In charging SAC in July, the grand jury accused Cohen’s firm of widespread fraud.
Traders at SAC engaged in insider trading “on a scale without precedent in the hedge fund industry,” the grand jury charged.
Cohen and SAC denied the charges and have said the Stamford, Conn., firm was run properly.
The firm has been plagued in recent years by the crackdown, which has led to arrests by the FBI of eight current and former employees for insider trading.
Bharara also brought a civil forfeiture suit against the firm that seeks “any and all assets” from the firm’s hedge funds.
The firm, which had $15 billion in assets at the start of the year, is facing a mass exodus from outside investors who hold some $6 billion of his firm’s assets.
The SEC suit alleges Cohen failed to supervise two employees — Mathew Martoma and Michael Steinberg, both of whom have been charged with insider trading and are awaiting trial.
Both traders have pleaded not guilty.
Just a few months earlier, in March, the regulator settled insider trading charges against SAC for a whopping $616 million, including a record $600 million settlement tied to its former trader Martoma.