Alleged insider trading mastermind Mathew Martoma wants a fancy Christmas vacation before he heads to court.
Martoma, a former portfolio manager for Steve Cohen’s SAC Capital Advisors, has received permission to take his wife and kids to Yellowstone National Park for two weeks on Dec. 20, court papers show.
The 39-year-old moneyman, indicted on Nov. 20, 2011, has turned over his passport to prosecutors and is otherwise only allowed to be in Florida, where he lives, in New Jersey, New York and Massachusetts.
A federal grand jury has charged Martoma with taking part in the largest insider trading scheme ever — one that earned SAC $276 million in profits and averted losses.
A trial on the charges is scheduled to begin Jan. 6.
Martoma received inside information from Dr. Sidney Gilman, a doctor who advised hedge funds as part of an expert network and is now cooperating with the feds, it is charged.
Gilman told Martoma that Alzheimer’s drug trials involving pharmaceutical stocks Elan and Wyeth were not going well — so the then-SAC executive placed a 20-minute call to Cohen, who soon sold the stock of the companies and then placed short bets on them, court papers allege.
Martoma denies the charges.
Cohen has not been charged with a crime — but his name and that of SAC have come up in a case against his top lieutenant, Michael Steinberg, whose trial in Manhattan federal court enters its fifth week Monday.
The government rested its case on Friday after four weeks of testimony.
Steinberg’s lawyer, Barry Berke, said the defense will call at most a few witnesses and will be prepared to sum up on Monday — without Steinberg taking the stand.