Convicted insider trader Mathew Martoma has been given almost seven more weeks to ponder his fate.
The former SAC Capital portfolio manager’s sentencing — originally scheduled for June 10 — is now set for July 28.
The lengthy delay comes as the court’s probation department has recommended between 15.7 and 19.6 years jail time — a sentence that Martoma’s legal team called “outrageous.”
The recommendation is based on the $276 million that Martoma’s crimes earned SAC — the largest insider-trading crime ever.
Judges haven’t been letting these white-collar thieves off easy, either.
Another former SAC money man, Michael Steinberg, who was convicted of insider trading netting only $1.8 million, was socked with a sentence of 3¹/₂ years in prison in May. His lawyers had asked for two years.
“Steinberg got hammered; Martoma is going to get hammered,” said one white-collar defense lawyer familiar with the case. Even those close to Martoma think he could end up serving more than 10 years.
Prosecutors originally suggested the sentencing be delayed until the last week of June because the Probation Department report was late. Martoma was entitled to a delay until at least June 20 because he didn’t receive the report until May 16.
A more lengthy delay has raised new speculation that Martoma may finally be working out a deal with US Attorney Preet Bharara. During the trial, witnesses acknowledged that the FBI told them the end game was to nail Martoma’s high-profile billionaire boss Steve Cohen — perhaps the best-known and most successful hedge-fund investor on Wall Street.
So far, they’ve been unable to shake Martoma — who made a 20-minute phone call to Cohen after he received his illegal insider tip on drug stocks Elan and Wyeth.
The next day, SAC began to unload, then short, the shares.
Cohen has not been charged, although the SAC hedge fund he ran pleaded guilty to insider trading, paid a record $1.8 billion in fines and was turned into a so-called family office that takes in no investor capital.
The new firm, Point72 Asset management, manages Cohen’s estimated $9 billion fortune.
It’s unclear why Martoma’s lawyers need so much more time.
They’ve already submitted what the government called a “voluminous” sentencing report asking for leniency. In it, the lawyers argued that Martoma was only personally responsible for $49 million in criminal proceeds, which should lessen the time he serves.
The government asked in a filing Tuesday for an extension until June 27 to make its sentencing recommendation.
Bharara’s office declined to comment. Martoma’s lawyer Richard Strassberg did not return a call.