By Al Barbarino
Stamford, CT-based hedge fund SAC Capital Advisors has purchased a property at 703 Washington Street for $38.8 million, city records show.
The property is a 10,152 s/f, one-story building in the West Village.
The hedge fund giant, founded by Stephen Cohen in 1992 and one of the largest hedge funds in the U.S., has come under intense scrutiny during a federal insider trading investigation.
SAC portfolio manager Michael Steinberg was placed on leave last month after he emerged as an “unindicted co-conspirator in a $62 million insider-trading scheme,” and the fifth person to be tied to a government insider-trading investigation while employed at the firm, Bloomberg reported.
Two other former SAC fund managers, Noah Freeman and Donald Longueuil, pleaded guilty to securities fraud for insider trading last year.
A lawsuit against Cohen filed by his ex-wife accusing him of insider trading in the 1980’s was dismissed in 2011.
Cohen, among the richest Americans and worth a reported $8 billion, has never been charged with any wrongdoing.
Jonathan Gasthalter, an SAC Capital spokesman, declined comment.
