Hedge-fund titan Steven Cohen is casting a shadow over the government’s last outstanding insider-trading trial.
Only one person who worked at Cohen’s SAC Capital Management, John Horvath, has been charged in the case, which accuses two hedge-fund bigwigs with illegal trading in shares of tech firms Dell and Nvidia.
But other folks associated with SAC keep cropping up. Before the trial kicked off, Horvath’s boss at SAC unit Sigma Capital, Michael Steinberg, was named as an unindicted co-conspirator.
Last week, government witness Jesse Tortora, a former analyst with Diamondback Capital, said his network of allegedly corrupt analysts included Ron Dennis, a former technology analyst at SAC unit CR Intrinsic.
Tortora said he met Dennis when he worked at Waddell & Reed. When Dennis moved to CR Intrinsic in July 2008, Tortora said he “began to talk to him again and exchange information.”
Tortora said that tips he received from Dennis were labeled as “Intrinsic checks” in mass e-mails to the group, which supposedly likened itself to “Fight Club.”
But Dennis was never CCed on the group e-mails, which helped to indict others in the group, including Horvath, Level Global analyst Sam Adondakis and Whitter Trust analyst Danny Kuo. “Ron had told me he prefers to speak on the phone versus e-mail,” Tortora told the jury.
Dennis, who left SAC in 2010, has not been accused of any wrongdoing and didn’t return a request for comment. Neither SAC Capital nor Cohen has been accused of any wrongdoing.
The federal jury will determine whether Tortora’s boss, Todd Newman, and Adondakis’ boss, Anthony Chiasson, knew the tips their underlings passed to them were illegal to trade on .–Kaja Whitehouse
Tick(et)ed off
Last week, Live Nation’s Ticketmaster lost its exclusive hold on ticketing at the Target Center in Minneapolis. Rival AEG is now selling tickets for events at the center.
AEG, which is being sold by its owner, Phil Anschutz, for between $5 billion and $10 billion, also is expanding — launching its service in the UK in October.
But AEG, which sells through an online service called AXS, is experiencing a few hiccups.
According to our London snoops, AEG’s new ticketing unit took a lifetime, and then some, to complete sales for a Michael Bublé concert next summer at the O2 Arena. According to internal e-mails obtained by The Post, a staff member wrote, “Ticketmaster processed all their sales for the 5th of July in less than 30 minutes, AXS still had 20,000 customers in their ‘waiting room’ at 12.30pm with unsold tickets on all 5 of their events.”
Concert staff were dismayed as fans hit Facebook and Twitter flooded to complain.
One source close to AEG explained, “Ticketmaster had one [event] to sell. We had five. The concert was three times oversubscribed. Our tickets took five to six times longer. It’s just math.”
An AEG rep declined comment.–ClaireAtkinson
Burch barks
Tory Burch doesn’t have a problem going public with her troubles with ex-husband, Chris.
The two are currently re-enacting “War of the Roses,” in a lawsuit over Chris’ role in her brand, and his new fashion line, C. Wonder, which has a certain connectedness to Tory’s designs.
Still, there is one thing Tory is very private about: the organization of her company, as opposed to going public through an IPO.
Chris has said he is interested in going public. But Tory told Women’s Wear Daily, “It’s not something I’ve ever thought about clearly, and it’s not going to happen anytime soon.
“I am personally not ready to be a public [chief executive officer]. Privacy [is what I would lose]. I am not saying exactly that one day it won’t happen, but for now it’s not in the cards.”–Post staff
Aussie arts
There’s a new launching pad in New York for Australian brands and cool young designers from Down Under.
The just-opened B_SPACE store in Nolita will showcase brands including Mambo, the surf and skatewear company; Volley, the classic Aussie tennis shoes; and Driza-Bone, a brand known for its heavy-duty riding coats; as well as showcasing emerging designers (including the jewelry stylings of Aussie model Nicole Trunfio, pictured).
Pete Maiden, an ex-Rolling Stone writer, is behind the store. He launched Billabout.com last year, to promote talented Australians living in New York and will use the space to shoot content about the brands for the website.
B_SPACE will also feature a skateboard deck with a photograph of another Australian model, Jessica Hart, by Ben Watts, who is the brother of Naomi. –Julie Earle-Levine