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 U.S. District Judge Paul Gardephe in Manhattan said Martoma's
alleged trades in American depository receipts of Irish drugmaker
Elan Corp <ELN.I> qualified as domestic transactions covered by U.S.
securities laws.
As a result, the judge rejected Martoma's request to dismiss one of
two securities fraud charges, as well as related allegations in a
conspiracy count. The defendant has pleaded not guilty to the three
counts, and faces a January 6 trial.
Martoma's lawyer Richard Strassberg, a partner at Goodwin Procter,
declined to comment.
SAC, the Stamford, Connecticut-based hedge fund run by billionaire
Steven A. Cohen, pleaded guilty on Nov. 8 to fraud and agreed to
pay $1.8 billion, including prior regulatory settlements, to end a
federal insider trading probe. Cohen has not been charged with a
crime.
Prosecutors accused Martoma of helping SAC affiliate CR Intrinsic
Investors avoid $276 million of losses in 2008 by recommending that
it sell shares of Elan and Wyeth, based on a doctor's tips about
poor trial results for a diabetes drug. Wyeth is now owned by Pfizer
Inc <PFE.N>.
Martoma argued that a key U.S. insider trading law, Section 10(b) of
the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, did not cover the Elan trades
because a 2010 U.S. Supreme Court decision limited the reach of that
law to domestic transactions.
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which hears appeals from
Manhattan, in August extended that decision, Morrison v. National
Australia Bank Ltd, in finding that U.S. criminal securities fraud
laws don't extend outside the country.
But Gardephe said the Elan ADRs were listed and traded on the New
York Stock Exchange, "an official American securities exchange," and
that Martoma cited no case to show that Section 10(b) should not
apply.
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The judge also rejected Martoma's argument that because Elan's ADRs
were mere "receipts," the trades qualified as foreign because
"liability was incurred and title passed" when Elan deposited the
associated shares with the Bank of Ireland.
"Defendant's arguments are not persuasive," Gardephe said. "Here, it
is undisputed that the Elan ADRs at issue were traded on the NYSE,
which means that the formation of contracts for those trades, the
passing of title to those securities, and the incurring of liability
on the part of sellers and purchasers of those ADRs occurred in the
United States."
U.S. prosecutors have charged eight SAC employees with insider
trading. Six have pleaded guilty, while Martoma and portfolio
manager Michael Steinberg pleaded not guilty. Jurors began
deliberating in Steinberg's trial on Tuesday.
The case is U.S. v. Martoma, U.S. District Court, Southern District
of New York, No. 12-cr-00973.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel; editing
by Alden Bentley, Andrew Hay and Vicki Allen)
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