Business

Feds look to extend reach on SAC

Everyone is focused on upcoming statute-of-limitations deadlines facing billionaire investor Steve Cohen (left) and his $15 billion hedge-fund firm SAC Capital Advisors.

Everyone, that is, except Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bharara, who — together with the FBI — has arrested at least half a dozen people who have admitted to or are alleged to have traded on illegal stock tips while at SAC.

Bharara and his fellow prosecutors “are not buying into the statute of limitations” in the SAC case, a person close to Bharara’s thinking told The Post.

The prosecutor’s office is looking at strategies and legal theories that could allow them to pursue their case against SAC executives even after the traditional five-year statute-of-limitation ends, this person said yesterday.

Over at SAC, meanwhile, all eyes are on July 29, sources told The Post.

That’s because that’s the date executives at the Stamford, Conn., company feel presents the biggest threat to Cohen.

That’s five years after former SAC trader Mathew Martoma’s alleged illegal insider-trades ended.

Martoma, who worked at SAC’s CR Intrinsic unit, was arrested last year on charges he helped SAC earn a whopping $276 million trading two pharmaceutical stocks on confidential tips gleaned from a doctor overseeing clinical drug trials.

Cohen has not been accused of any wrongdoing, but the government said he participated in Martoma’s trades.

A spokesman for the hedge-fund mogul declined to comment, as did a Bharara spokeswoman.

One strategy Bharara is rumored to be mulling is the hub-and-spoke conspiracy theory.

Under this theory, prosecutors would need to prove that many traders conspired with one person even if they didn’t conspire with each other.

Under this plan, prosecutors could extend their five-year legal reach if they prove a more recent insider-trading case among the hub-and-spoke participants.

Meanwhile, Cohen may be feeling the heat of the probe. The billionaire’s flagship fund posted returns of less than 1 percent in May. For the year to date, returns are just 6 percent.

“It’s OK, but it’s nothing to pound the table about,” said one SAC investor who has moved to withdraw his entire investment from Cohen’s fund by the end of the year. He cited “the distraction” as one concern.