Business

Cohen fund boss Conheeney makes surprise exit

The changing of the guard at Steve Cohen’s hedge fund-cum-$11 billion family office neared completion Monday with the unexpected announcement of the departure of President Tom Conheeney.

Conheeney’s exit comes as his boss, Cohen, still faces federal civil charges related to insider trading at his former corrupt hedge fund, SAC Capital.

The ex-hedge-fund mogul is fighting the Securities and Exchange Commission’s efforts to bar him from the industry for life over failure to supervise his staff.

Eight employees have been convicted of insider trading.

A stay on the SEC’s case expires on Aug. 26.

This past spring, as the Stamford, Conn., investment firm was changing its name from SAC to Point72 Asset Management, Conheeney, who helped run Cohen’s massively successful investment funds for 15 years, talked to employees about “a sense of continuity” at the company.

“We anticipate it will be our home for many years to come,” he said at the time.

Cohen, who is the firm’s CEO, said that Conheeney will stay on until the end of the year to oversee the transition.

Douglas Haynes, a former McKinsey director, took over as president on Monday.

With Conheeney’s departure, all three top Cohen lieutenants have left the building. The others are Sol Kumin, SAC’s former chief operating officer, who left in November to form his own hedge fund, and Steven Kessler, SAC’s former chief compliance officer, who quit in February.

“It looks like Cohen’s cleaning house and wants to show the SEC he has all new people,” said one lawyer familiar with the matter.

Conheeney was the voice of the firm over the past year as it dealt with charges and convictions of insider trading by former employees.

Although Conheeney did not testify in the insider- trading trials of former portfolio managers Mathew Martoma and Michael Steinberg, his name came up several times in the proceedings as the key individual overseeing the business.

The change of firm designation was part of a plea agreement between SAC and US Attorney Preet Bharara on criminal insider-trading charges. The firm paid $1.8 billion to settle with both the US Attorney and the SEC.

This year, Point72 also beefed up compliance, as was required by the plea deal.

Bart Schwartz, a former federal prosecutor who has served as an independent monitor in other cases, was named as the independent monitor of trading at Cohen’s new firm.

Cohen also created a new position, “chief surveillance officer,” hiring Vincent Tortorella, a former federal prosecutor for that job.