Steve Cohen, the multibillionaire hedge fund legend whose firm became synonymous with illegal trading, will soon have another person looking over his shoulder.
SAC Capital Advisors, which has pled guilty to insider trading and is awaiting sentencing on March 14, is hiring a new “chief surveillance officer” who will report directly to president Tom Conheeney, according to a Tuesday employee memo, a copy of which was obtained by The Post.
The new trading monitor, according to the memo, signed by Conheeney and Cohen, “will broaden and elevate our surveillance capabilities.”
The newly created position will be filled in the spring, the memo said.
SAC’s chief compliance officer, Steve Kessler, resigned after the failures of its compliance practices were on display at two lengthy insider trading trials of SAC execs Michael Steinberg and Mathew Martoma.
Both men were found guilty.
Six other former SAC employees pled guilty to insider trading, as did the firm. It agreed to pay $1.8 billion in fines, including about $600 million to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The move to beef up SAC’s compliance comes as the firm prepares to be sentenced by Manhattan federal court Judge Laura Taylor Swain.
As part of the deal it struck with US Attorney Preet Bharara, SAC has also accepted a probationary period of five years and has to pay for an independent compliance consultant.
The memo also said that SAC had redeemed almost all outside investor money as of Jan. 31 and has gone from 1,000 employees to 850. It plans to reinvent itself as a family office on May 1 that will manage about $9 billion of Cohen’s money.
The new firm will be composed of two new entities whose names will be announced in April, the memo said.
“We have been through a few challenging years, but the changes we have announced and will be announcing will make us a stronger firm as we move forward together,” Conheeney and Cohen concluded.
The SEC still has a case pending against him over his failure to supervise the firm and could bar him from man
An SAC spokesman declined to comment.