On Leave

Steinberg has had the longest tenure at SAC of those the U.S. has tied to its insider-trading probe. Barry Berke, Steinberg’s lawyer, said today that his client is “caught in the crossfire of aggressive investigations.”

“Michael Steinberg did absolutely nothing wrong,” the attorney said in a statement. “His trading decisions were based on detailed analysis as well as information that he understood had been properly obtained through the types of channels that institutional investors rely upon on a daily basis.”

Jonathan Gasthalter, a spokesman for Stamford, Connecticut- based SAC, declined to immediately comment. Ellen Davis, a spokeswoman for Bharara, said in an e-mail the matter is “still sealed,” declining to comment further.

Yesterday, a Manhattan federal judge expressed skepticism at a provision of a $602 million settlement by SAC with the SEC. SAC will have to wait to learn if the proposed insider trading accord can go forward, after U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero raised questions over whether the hedge fund should be allowed to avoid admitting it did anything wrong as part of the deal.

The accord would resolve SEC claims that SAC and CR Intrinsic profited from alleged illegal tips received by Martoma about the Alzheimer’s drug. As part of the March 15 agreement, the SEC sued Sigma, describing Horvath’s passing of inside information and expanding what the U.S. had previously said about the insider trading at SAC.

Jon Horvath

Horvath pleaded guilty in September, admitting that he provided illegal tips to his portfolio manager, who then traded on them.

Horvath said he and his co-conspirators obtained material nonpublic information on Dell in August 2008 and about Nvidia in May 2009 from insiders at the two technology companies.

While Horvath never named Steinberg in court, prosecutors alleged during Chiasson and Newman’s trial that Steinberg was the recipient of Horvath’s tips. The tips earned Horvath’s hedge fund manager about $1.4 million, prosecutors said. The SEC said in the March 15 complaint that the analyst’s tips on technology stocks reaped the fund more than $6 million.