One of hedge fund billionaire Steven A. Cohen’s largest outside investors, private equity firm Blackstone Group, appears inclined to keep its money with his SAC Capital Advisors, even as the US government scrutinizes the fund in its ongoing insider trading probe.
Three sources said the asset management arm of Blackstone, which has $550 million invested with SAC Capital, is in no rush to redeem money from the Stamford, Conn.-based hedge fund. Blackstone has had at least three discussions with the $14 billion hedge fund’s executives about the insider trading investigation and talked to its own investors, which include state pension funds, endowments and wealthy individuals.
Seven current and former SAC employees have been charged or implicated in the insider trading probe into hedge funds and their sources of trading tips, and the firm itself — along with the 56-year-old Cohen — has been drawing renewed scrutiny.
“I am unaware of any representation by Blackstone that they are pulling out,” said Robert Klausner, a Florida attorney who represents a pension fund from Louisiana that is an investor in a Blackstone fund with money at SAC Capital.
A Blackstone spokesman and an SAC Capital spokesman both declined to comment.
Outside investors in SAC Capital, who can redeem four times a year, have until the middle of February to decide whether to pull out some money. So officials at Blackstone, which accounts for about 9 percent of the outside money invested in SAC Capital, could still change their view on the hedge fund in the event of a new development in the insider trading probe.