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What Gets An SAC Portfolio Manager $1.3 MM? Lots Of Insider Trading, Banging Hookers And Running Around Naked While High On Shrooms

Tyler Durden's picture




Courtesy of ex-SAC portfolio manager Noah Freeman's cooperating witness testimony, we now know just what it takes to be a star trader under Stevie Cohen: i) trade on inside information at least 6 times, ii) run around San Francisco, in your underwear, high on shrooms, and iii) bang a hooker at a Taiwan bar called the Red Horse. And that's about all you need to make 1.3 million a year while in the employment of one SAC Capital.

Bloomberg brings us more details of the highly secretive, and oh so mysterious world of hedge fund high fliers:

A former SAC Capital Advisors LLP portfolio manager testified that on a 2009 business trip he ingested a hallucinogenic mushroom that resulted in his wandering around the streets of San Francisco in his underwear.

Freeman was asked about his drug history during cross- examination by David Luttinger, a lawyer for Jiau. Freeman said he smoked marijuana regularly from his senior year in high school until 2009 and said he took a hallucinogenic mushroom once while attending a conference in San Francisco in 2009.

“I was walking around looking for something to do,” Freeman said, adding that he’d bought the drug outside a concert hall. When he didn’t get an immediate reaction, he said he ate some more.

“‘Weren’t you running around the streets of San Francisco in your underwear?” asked Luttinger, who also asked Freeman why he hadn’t given authorities or hospital officials his real name when he was found wandering and disoriented.

“It was one of the worst experiences of my life,” Freeman said. “I was worried I was going to get in trouble with SAC.”

Then there is the whole insider trading thing...

Luttinger closely questioned Freeman about the number of times he committed insider trading based on material, nonpublic information while at Sonar Capital.

“Approximately a dozen where I’m totally confident the information was material and nonpublic,” Freeman said.

“What about your time at SAC Capital?” Luttinger asked.

“Focusing on only the ones where there was no question of a gray area, I would say perhaps half a dozen,” Freeman said. “Again, my trading style was faster there, so I don’t remember quite as well.”

But wait, there's more:

Was it your experience that people working in companies based in Taiwan were looser with their financial information and sales data?” Luttinger asked.

“Yes, they were,” Freeman said.

Luttinger asked Freeman if he ever paid for prostitutes for his sources, citing a report by the Federal Bureau of Investigation describing an incident at a karaoke bar in Taiwan called the Red Horse.

“Didn’t you purchase a prostitute?” Luttinger asked.

“No,” Freeman said. “The conversation was conducted in Chinese. I collected a large bill and I was never sure what happened.”

He said the bill totaled “a couple of thousand dollars,” and he submitted it to his assistant at Sonar Capital who “sorted it out.”

But wait, there's even more:

Last week, Hyland disputed Freeman’s testimony, saying that
“any statement that Sonar Capital used insider trading as a
business model is categorically false.”

Just like SAC has said any statement about SAC is "categorically false."

As for the bottom line:

Freeman, who said his contract at SAC Capital guaranteed him a minimum compensation of $1.3 million.

And now you know the mystery behind the hedge fund facade: insider trading, lots of drugs, occasionally running around a major metropolis in your boxers, and hookers. The rest is the daily commute.




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Tue, 06/07/2011 - 21:45 | Link to Comment ILikeBoats
ILikeBoats's picture

Perhaps the "golden handcuffs" were something more than a metaphor ...

Wed, 06/08/2011 - 01:01 | Link to Comment FreedomGuy
FreedomGuy's picture

Now that was good, lol!

Tue, 06/07/2011 - 21:43 | Link to Comment Blano
Blano's picture

I'd take that gig.

Wed, 06/08/2011 - 05:12 | Link to Comment malikai
malikai's picture

I've just applied. If you get in my way, you're dead.

Tue, 06/07/2011 - 21:43 | Link to Comment AUD
AUD's picture

Shit, I'm in the wrong game.

Tue, 06/07/2011 - 21:45 | Link to Comment lizzy36
lizzy36's picture

Fucking rookie error, ingesting more, when the first batch hasn't been digested.

Stevie, scrapping the bottom of the barrel with this dude.

Tue, 06/07/2011 - 22:23 | Link to Comment bonddude
bonddude's picture

Spent half the night picking holographic fruit off the wall. Yep i've seen rookies before.

Tue, 06/07/2011 - 23:00 | Link to Comment Village Idiot
Village Idiot's picture

Rookie moves can also be the best of times. I remeber running around with my best buddies in a 1974 LTD convertible. We pulled up on the bluffs next to Hoag Hospital and howled like wolves under the methane gas blowoff tower. The flames blowing out of the tower, moon full in the sky...very animalistic.Ran in to some girls. They dug the whole wolf thing. Good times.

Wed, 06/08/2011 - 10:02 | Link to Comment RF
RF's picture

V.I., you are dating yourself, talking about the bluffs at Hoag. You old enough to remember the Rendezvous?

Best regards,

RF

Tue, 06/07/2011 - 23:31 | Link to Comment ToNYC
ToNYC's picture

 

Stevie knows to take the sacraments in the church of the woods and water..woulda' saved a good night...hookers? paying for sex is a dog's game. The guy's just not experienced, that's all folks.

Tue, 06/07/2011 - 21:45 | Link to Comment metalsman22
metalsman22's picture

Ah, just like the good ole days ;)

Tue, 06/07/2011 - 21:48 | Link to Comment Barb Dwire
Barb Dwire's picture

Sign me up!

Tue, 06/07/2011 - 21:51 | Link to Comment Irrational Exub...
Irrational Exuberance's picture


Where do I apply!

Tue, 06/07/2011 - 21:53 | Link to Comment JLee2027
JLee2027's picture

"Boxers and Hookers"

Now that's a classic.

Tue, 06/07/2011 - 22:03 | Link to Comment Cheesy Bastard
Cheesy Bastard's picture

If you think she can wrestle, you should see her box.

Tue, 06/07/2011 - 23:19 | Link to Comment Problem Is
Problem Is's picture

"Boxers and Hookers"

Stevie Cohen says now that's classy...

Tue, 06/07/2011 - 23:27 | Link to Comment rockraider3
rockraider3's picture

That reminds me of Model and Bottles... the video that the limp dick investment banker put out.

http://www.mergersandinquisitions.com/why-not-investment-banking/

Tue, 06/07/2011 - 21:53 | Link to Comment King Durian
King Durian's picture

He should just at this point retire and go to Thailand where he can blend in with the other monger farangs. That way he can run around with 2 hookers in Pattaya on his arm on LSD and his career won't be fazed. Hell, it might even help for a PR tool.

Tue, 06/07/2011 - 21:58 | Link to Comment Spitzer
Spitzer's picture

I am on the way to Pattaya actually.

Its a really nice place. 30 golf courses, big shopping malls,

 

Tue, 06/07/2011 - 22:09 | Link to Comment sneering nihilist
sneering nihilist's picture

big shopping malls = nice place.

 

now THAT is sarcasm! well done!

Tue, 06/07/2011 - 22:34 | Link to Comment gwar5
gwar5's picture

The Pattaya miracle mile....

They have a lot more than 30 rounds of golf in Pattaya, Spitz. You know the drill. Make sure there's no junk in the front first so your putter doesn't go all wobbly during the backswing. Have fun.

 

Almost forgot -- my avatar is a picture of the elephants one hour above Chang Mai, Thailand.

Tue, 06/07/2011 - 23:55 | Link to Comment williambanzai7
williambanzai7's picture

Just make sure you get your Sois straight. And I do mean straight.

Tue, 06/07/2011 - 21:53 | Link to Comment Goldtoothchimp09
Goldtoothchimp09's picture

NEVER hire a trader that can't handle his drugs!  geesh

Tue, 06/07/2011 - 21:56 | Link to Comment yabyum
yabyum's picture

Sounds like my entire 20's minus the big buxs.

Tue, 06/07/2011 - 22:23 | Link to Comment Ben Fleeced
Ben Fleeced's picture

The homeless are not allowed in the Lincoln Tunnel. Sign says no pedestrians. Ooops. Ended up being banged by a Tennessee art dealer in the Holiday Inn on West 54th. THAT"S my 20's. This shit is nothin'. Clean black leather with a McDonalds straw. Bitchessssss!

Tue, 06/07/2011 - 21:52 | Link to Comment Manthong
Manthong's picture

I need someone to "sort out" my expenses, too.

Tue, 06/07/2011 - 21:55 | Link to Comment buzzsaw99
buzzsaw99's picture

a slight twist to hookers and cocaine.

Tue, 06/07/2011 - 22:01 | Link to Comment King Durian
King Durian's picture

Enjoy! Have some durian for me while you're there!

Tue, 06/07/2011 - 22:01 | Link to Comment nmewn
nmewn's picture

Psylosiben bithez!

Tue, 06/07/2011 - 22:31 | Link to Comment Ben Fleeced
Ben Fleeced's picture

everything tastes better on a ritz.

Tue, 06/07/2011 - 22:02 | Link to Comment ugly_avatar_Muir
ugly_avatar_Muir's picture

Freeman, who said his contract at SAC Capital guaranteed him a minimum compensation of $1.3 million.

And now you know the mystery behind the hedge fund facade: insider trading, lots of drugs, occasionally running around a major metropolis in your boxers, and hookers. The rest is the daily commute.

___ Is this a fucking great Country, or what!!? _
Tue, 06/07/2011 - 22:32 | Link to Comment Chuck Walla
Chuck Walla's picture

I'd do it for half that.

Tue, 06/07/2011 - 22:36 | Link to Comment Ben Fleeced
Ben Fleeced's picture

I WANT MY COUNTRY BACK!

Tue, 06/07/2011 - 22:03 | Link to Comment holdbuysell
holdbuysell's picture

Forget about confidence in the markets, we have a much larger sociological problem to worry about.

Truly sad individual.

Tue, 06/07/2011 - 22:37 | Link to Comment Ben Fleeced
Ben Fleeced's picture

STFU Puritan! Move.

Tue, 06/07/2011 - 23:15 | Link to Comment holdbuysell
holdbuysell's picture

Like I said...a sociological problem...I didn't even have to cue you, and you responded in spades.

Much thanks.

Wed, 06/08/2011 - 00:59 | Link to Comment Oh regional Indian
Oh regional Indian's picture

Interesting what response a clear-truthy statemement will bring eh holdbuy? 

You puritan you! ;-)

ORI

Wed, 06/08/2011 - 05:14 | Link to Comment swamp
swamp's picture

What's also sad is that so many think degrading themselves is cool. 

What ever happened to dignity?

Tue, 06/07/2011 - 22:11 | Link to Comment Caviar Emptor
Caviar Emptor's picture

It's a proven formula, don't mess with it! It's what made this country great. 

Tue, 06/07/2011 - 22:15 | Link to Comment gwar5
gwar5's picture

Bang Dai Ho: I Immune too. Took shots. I swear under oath Noah Freeman is great big Weiner.

 

 

Tue, 06/07/2011 - 22:27 | Link to Comment The Rock
The Rock's picture

ROFLMFAO

Tue, 06/07/2011 - 22:48 | Link to Comment Ben Fleeced
Ben Fleeced's picture

Gwar5

mems boi! Good on ya!

Tue, 06/07/2011 - 22:13 | Link to Comment I am a Man I am...
I am a Man I am Forty's picture

this guy was partying his ass off and is acting like he is one of the innocent victims of Zack Galifianakis

Tue, 06/07/2011 - 22:13 | Link to Comment Conceptwizard
Conceptwizard's picture

"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves."
Abraham Lincoln

Tue, 06/07/2011 - 22:16 | Link to Comment holdbuysell
holdbuysell's picture

And thus my comments above...sociologically, we're degenerating from within.

Tue, 06/07/2011 - 22:56 | Link to Comment Ben Fleeced
Ben Fleeced's picture

Yes. Everything we are experiencing has NEVER happened before. END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT. Save my chidren, oh my sick children save them so my family name can survive.

Epic fail!!!!!!

Tue, 06/07/2011 - 23:17 | Link to Comment holdbuysell
holdbuysell's picture

Yes, history (nearly) repeats itself. What's your point?

Wed, 06/08/2011 - 05:20 | Link to Comment swamp
swamp's picture

Rome is burning (so is dignity) and he gets back slapped by all the common (male) sluts.

Tue, 06/07/2011 - 22:19 | Link to Comment Itsalie
Itsalie's picture

"And now you know the mystery behind the hedge fund facade: insider trading, lots of drugs, occasionally running around a major metropolis in your boxers, and hookers. The rest is the daily commute."

 

That is the main reason (apart from tax evasion) why the hedgies are all volunteers in their Asian outposts HK and Singapore now, edge of the empire, Bang cock, Manila and Jakarta all beckon, within 2 hours from a really good time, even the FBI folks cannot resist the cheap and good massage joints (no pun), anonymity assured. Someone once chanced across a group of farlangs comprising hedgies hosted by squiddies fixers, and looked over by some secret agents who themselves could not resist frolicking naked in some foam parties with an entire harem of naked local girls in one of these seedy cities in the far east. So in case you need to know who hedgies or computers makes decisions during asian trading hours...

 

 

 

 

Tue, 06/07/2011 - 22:31 | Link to Comment Chuck Walla
Chuck Walla's picture

Tell ya' what, having hung around Bangkok, those girls smell funny.

Wed, 06/08/2011 - 03:30 | Link to Comment OldTrooper
OldTrooper's picture

That happens...if you haven't had enough mushrooms.

Wed, 06/08/2011 - 07:01 | Link to Comment ToNYC
ToNYC's picture

 

Next time you'll learn to get loaded and take a big bar of soap in the shower with your dates to start the game.

 

Tue, 06/07/2011 - 23:02 | Link to Comment Ben Fleeced
Ben Fleeced's picture

If you drown you are pure. If you float you are a witch to be burned.

 

B. Fleeced

Tue, 06/07/2011 - 23:44 | Link to Comment holdbuysell
holdbuysell's picture

You said:

"If you drown you are pure. If you float you are a witch to be burned."

And you also said:

"STFU Puritan! Move."

So 'witch' are you? Certainly not 'pur'itan.

I'll light the match.....

 

Jordan fades back....."swish"

Tue, 06/07/2011 - 22:22 | Link to Comment serotonindumptruck
serotonindumptruck's picture

Tripping balls and emptying your balls at the same time.

Damn. I'm in the wrong profession.

Wed, 06/08/2011 - 07:07 | Link to Comment ToNYC
ToNYC's picture

 

There is no reason not to expect another wrong choice if you don't make sure you are in the mindset of massaging her ankles into your ears.

Tue, 06/07/2011 - 22:27 | Link to Comment Vampyroteuthis ...
Vampyroteuthis infernalis's picture

Was the hooker hot? Shit, this is every man's dream until he grows old and realizes how dumb he acted.

Tue, 06/07/2011 - 22:25 | Link to Comment wannabe traitor
wannabe traitor's picture

amateur move. (telling the truth under oath)

Tue, 06/07/2011 - 23:02 | Link to Comment Ben Fleeced
Ben Fleeced's picture

trust, Wannabe!

Do you...?

I do have severe memory loss your honor!

Wed, 06/08/2011 - 03:29 | Link to Comment OldTrooper
OldTrooper's picture

There's a reason for the 5th amendment.

Wed, 06/08/2011 - 07:12 | Link to Comment ToNYC
ToNYC's picture

 

Is the reason to prove you have a brain? ..or shuite yourself and do some 'splainin' to your new friend, the man.

Wed, 06/08/2011 - 08:46 | Link to Comment Sig Sauer
Sig Sauer's picture

re-read the first line..."cooperating witness"

take the Fifth and lose your plea deal

Tue, 06/07/2011 - 22:29 | Link to Comment Pure Evil
Pure Evil's picture

He's lucky he didn't trip his way down to the Castro, he might have come back to Planet Earth with a whole new sexual identity.

And, you the think the FEDS are screwing him a new asshole.

Tue, 06/07/2011 - 22:35 | Link to Comment Chuck Walla
Chuck Walla's picture

The first sign of aids is a pounding sensation in your rectum.

Wed, 06/08/2011 - 07:20 | Link to Comment ToNYC
ToNYC's picture

 

Far easier and way less messy to join up with the part of your brain before sex was expressed..get to know the other sex you were once about be. Unstuck in time as it were on a whole 'nother level. The secret mystery of Eleusis gets you there. A little tab 'll do ya.

Tue, 06/07/2011 - 22:33 | Link to Comment SloMoe
SloMoe's picture

Do I get to twitter my junk, or is that privilege only for elected officials?

Tue, 06/07/2011 - 23:48 | Link to Comment Freddie
Freddie's picture

Weiner might be able to get a gig at SAC.  My guess is Steve Cohen may fire him when Breitbart release the photo he supposedly has of Weiner with his own weiner in his own mouth.  I guess he must be into yoga to do that.

Tue, 06/07/2011 - 22:38 | Link to Comment Conrad Murray
Conrad Murray's picture

Who's going to hang around midtown selling blow and shrooms laced with rat posion now?

Tue, 06/07/2011 - 23:04 | Link to Comment Ben Fleeced
Ben Fleeced's picture

+ death cross.

Tue, 06/07/2011 - 23:04 | Link to Comment Ben Fleeced
Ben Fleeced's picture

dupe delete

Wed, 06/08/2011 - 07:23 | Link to Comment ToNYC
ToNYC's picture

You need to find better friends..and It Ain't Me, Babe.

Tue, 06/07/2011 - 22:42 | Link to Comment eureka
eureka's picture

"Freeman".... and "Cohen"... hmm...   -  "Bernanke"... "Geithner"...hmm...

US pioneers crossed deserts to reach their Holy... Hollywood... Homeland... hmm

Zerohedgers nodding.... sex, drugs and more money than God... hmm...

Continuity, repetition, transcendence... - death defying, or death seeking... hmm...

Tue, 06/07/2011 - 22:59 | Link to Comment Vic Vinegar
Vic Vinegar's picture

Losers love to complain.

Wed, 06/08/2011 - 00:25 | Link to Comment eureka
eureka's picture

"Losers"... who do you refer to?

Any zerohedger knows the biggest losers are the rich, who always need more money which they get from the Fed, their darling whorehouse - and who always blame the peasants, the workers and the poor - yes, the rich, who pass the buck to the poor.

If your nebulous four words are a complaint, check with Max Keiser.

Tue, 06/07/2011 - 23:06 | Link to Comment Ben Fleeced
Ben Fleeced's picture

Some stopped. OK, NE, MO...hmmm

Tue, 06/07/2011 - 23:01 | Link to Comment Ura Bonehead
Ura Bonehead's picture

Freeman's nickname at SAC was, "Lite Weight."  Stevie told him, "Son.  If you can't keep-up we're going to have to let you go."

Tue, 06/07/2011 - 23:07 | Link to Comment Flakmeister
Flakmeister's picture

Ah... shrooms....

Remember walking through farmer's field in the Pac Northwest picking and eating..

The wet ones are an acquired taste....

Tue, 06/07/2011 - 23:20 | Link to Comment Alienated Serf
Alienated Serf's picture

wet hookers or shrooms?

 

i lurves some shrooms.

 

 

Tue, 06/07/2011 - 23:36 | Link to Comment Problem Is
Problem Is's picture

Running Around San Francisco Naked While High On Shrooms
If he took a crap in the middle of the sidewalk right on Mission St, left his underwear, wiped with a newspaper and walked away naked...

He would be a typical SF homeless derelict...

He would have to flip off a cop before they would do anything about him... maybe (while naked after having crapped on the sidewalk)...

What else is new in SF?

Tue, 06/07/2011 - 23:49 | Link to Comment Freddie
Freddie's picture

+1 and true.  Typical Obama voters.

Wed, 06/08/2011 - 00:08 | Link to Comment Yen Cross
Yen Cross's picture

 JUST a Small Giggle. Everyone beat me to the BIG laughs.

Wed, 06/08/2011 - 00:38 | Link to Comment chindit13
chindit13's picture

Just for some perspective, a large bar tab does not necessarily indicate hookers were involved.  Anyone who did Tokyo in the 80's or early 90's can attest to that.

As one who was the object of the affection of sell side firms, there were occasions when I was taken to a bar---which the sell side folks wanted to visit---had some god-awful boring Canadian or Brit backpacker woman in an ill-fitting evening gown come sit next to me, drank perhaps two beers, ate a handful of peanuts, and then looked over the shoulder of the host as he pulled out the company credit card and paid the $3000 bill.  Two sell sides types, me, twenty minutes in full and fully-clothed view of all participants, a maximum of a half dozen beers at the table---all for $3000.  As we shook hands on the street, the usual last comment from the sell side types was, "if anybody from our firm asks, tell them we went to two or three other bars after Cassanova, okay?"

Google "Cassanova Club, Roppongi"

Wed, 06/08/2011 - 00:45 | Link to Comment ebworthen
ebworthen's picture

 

...figures...

 

Wed, 06/08/2011 - 02:46 | Link to Comment jomama
jomama's picture

best article title ever.

Wed, 06/08/2011 - 03:20 | Link to Comment mt paul
mt paul's picture

and

that was before breakfast...

Wed, 06/08/2011 - 04:44 | Link to Comment rsi1
rsi1's picture

TD, you were a hedgie too, was this your life then?

Wed, 06/08/2011 - 05:56 | Link to Comment celticgold
celticgold's picture

 hedge things just go better....

Wed, 06/08/2011 - 08:35 | Link to Comment Welfareisfraud
Welfareisfraud's picture

Well he traded on inside information, what's the issue with that other than arbitrary political dislike? Not like politicos don't do just that, only in a far more pernicious way...

Wed, 06/08/2011 - 08:59 | Link to Comment drivenZ
drivenZ's picture

yawn, what else is new. Call me when someone's indicted for murder

Wed, 06/08/2011 - 10:14 | Link to Comment glenlloyd
glenlloyd's picture

douchebags

Wed, 06/08/2011 - 13:36 | Link to Comment atomicwasted
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Resume sent.

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