Report: Criminal charges coming for SAC

It’s turning into a rough summer for hedgefund honcho Steve Cohen.

Federal prosecutors are on track to charge Cohen’s $15 billion firm, SAC Capital Advisors, with insider trading as soon as this week, according to a report last night.

The charges are set to come less than a week after the Securities and Exchange Commission charged Cohen for failure to supervise two em ployees facing trial for alleged insider trading while at the Stamford, Conn., hedgefund firm.

Cohen is not expected to be hit with criminal charges personally, according to the report in the Wall Street Journal. The federal probe against him is still ongoing, but investigators would have needed the cooperation of former trader Mathew Martona to bring insider trading charges ahead of a fiveyear statute of limitations for a straightforward insider trading case by the July 29 deadline.

If prosecutors bring charges against the firm and win a guilty verdict, or if the SEC’s civil case succeeds in shutting down SAC, it could cost Cohen as much as $8 billion in lost profits over the next 10 years.

The amount is based on the $6 billion in outside money under management and on SAC’s topshelf expenses.

Meanwhile, Mary Jo White isn’t wasting any time trying to run Cohen out of the hedgefund business.

After filing civil charges against the billionaire investor on Friday, the head of the SEC yesterday announced the first hearing in the case will be held on Aug. 26.

Cohen, 57, faces a lifetime ban from managing investors’ money.

The SEC said the case, filed with its internal administrative court, will be over within 300 days.

An SAC spokesman did not comment to the Journal on possible criminal charges.