Black edge - Sheelah Kolhatkar

Steven A. Cohen is a Wall Street legend. In 1992 he launched the hedge fundSAC Capital, which he then built into a $15 billion empire, almost entirely on thebasis of his wizard-like stock trading. He cultivated an air of mystery,reclusiveness, and extreme excess, building a 35,000 square foot house inGreenwich, flying to work by helicopter, and amassing one of the largest privateart collections in the world. On Wall Street, he was revered as a genius: one of thegreatest traders who ever lived. That public image was shattered when SAC Capitalbecame the target of a sprawling, seven-year criminal and SEC investigation, thelargest in history, led by an under-recognized but determined group of FBI agents, prosecutors, and SEC investigators. Labeled by prosecutors as a "magnet formarket cheaters" whose culture encouraged relentless pursuit of an information "edge"--and even "black edge" (inside information)--SAC Capital was ultimatelyindicted and pled guilty to charges of securities and wire fraud in connection witha large-scale insider trading scheme. Cohen's company paid record criminal andcivil fines of nearly $2 billion and Cohen was forced to stop managing otherpeople's money. But as Kolhatkar shows, even as the company bearing his initialsplead guilty, Cohen himself walked away a free man. This is a riveting, true-lifethriller that raises an urgent and troubling question: Are Wall Street titans likeCohen above the law?