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The SEC has alleged that Sidney Gillman, a doctor who moonlighted as a medical consultant, tipped drug safety data and negative drug trial results to Martoma two weeks before developers Elan Corp. and Wyeth made those results public in 2008. Martoma and CR Intrinsic then caused several hedge funds to sell more than $960 million in Elan and Wyeth securities in a little more than a week. Steinberg is accused of earning more than $1.4 million illegally in connection with trades involving Dell and Nvidia in 2008 and 2009. The SEC said Steinberg had information about both companies ahead of their quarterly earnings announcements. Cohen, who lives in Greenwich, Conn., is one of the highest profile figures in American finance and one of the world's richest men. He is among the handful of upper-tier hedge fund managers who pull in about $1 billion a year in compensation. The SEC action against Cohen culminated a week in which the agency took significant enforcement moves involving prominent Wall Street figures. The actions could signal a new direction and strategy under SEC Chairman Mary Jo White, who assumed office in April. Since the 2008 financial crisis, public and investor advocates have criticized the SEC for failing to hold high-level individuals on Wall Street accountable for misconduct. White pledged at her Senate confirmation hearing to pursue "all wrongdoers
-- individual and institutional, of whatever position or size." The SEC on Wednesday imposed a $13.9 million fine on Rajat Gupta, the former Goldman Sachs board member convicted of insider trading, to settle the agency's related civil charges. At a closed meeting during the week, the SEC commissioners rejected a proposed settlement $18 million settlement that would have banned billionaire hedge fund manager Philip Falcone from the securities industry for two years. The deal, which was agreed to by the SEC's enforcement staff, was voted down because it wasn't tough enough.
[Associated
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