Business

SAC exec used stolen info to make ‘lots of money,’ jury told

SAC Capital Advisors money manager Michael Steinberg used stolen business information to make money — “lots of money” — for himself and his company, a Manhattan federal court jury was told Wednesday.

When Steinberg “traded on that illegal information, he broke the law,” prosecutor Antonia Apps said in her opening statement.

The 41-year-old Steinberg, charged with conspiracy and securities fraud, is the seventh SAC executive to face charges in US Attorney Preet Bharara’s massive multiyear crackdown on insider trading.

The high-stakes criminal case, which finished jury selection Wednesday morning, opened in the afternoon before a packed courtroom.

SAC is among the most powerful hedge funds in the world and Steinberg the highest-ranking exec of the Stamford, Conn., firm to face criminal charges. SAC pleaded guilty to criminal fraud charges this month.

Billionaire SAC founder Steve Cohen faces a possible lifetime ban from trading on a pending civil regulatory suit.

Getting his first taste of the government’s case against him, Steinberg, in a sharp black suit and maroon tie, appeared to weather Apps’ verbal barrage.

At the end of the second day of the trial on Wednesday, he leaned over into the gallery to kiss his pretty blonde wife.

The government’s key witness will be Jon Horvath, an SAC tech research analyst who reported to Steinberg. Horvath pleaded guilty last year to similar charges regarding trading in tech stocks Dell and Nvdia.

Horvath was pressured into the criminal activity after some of his recommendations failed in 2007 and he was at risk of losing his job, according to the government.

“Steinberg told him he needed to get edgy proprietary information,” Apps told the jury.

Horvath will testify that he called Steinberg, who was vacationing in Mexico, with an illegal stock tip about Dell, and “one minute later” the accused started to sell Dell shares, making $1 million on the trade, Apps said.

But Steinberg’s lawyer, Barry Berke, said Horvath made up the story because “he was facing a very long jail sentence” and “chose self-interest over the truth.”

Horvath’s co-conspirators — some of whom will testify in the trial — all made deals with the feds, and Horvath’s only way out was to rat on Steinberg, Berke said.