Visium has held talks regarding its multimanager platform with firms including AllianceBernstein Holding LP, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. Jonathan Freedman, a spokesman for the New York-based firm, didn’t return messages seeking comment.

Assets under management at Visium had dropped to $7 billion at the end of March, from $8 billion in February. The firm employs more than 170 people in New York, London, and San Francisco.

Performance Slumps

“I think it will be very difficult to sell the firm while the current legal proceedings are unfolding,” Steinbrugge said. “It’ll also make it significantly more difficult for them to raise money.”

Recent performance isn’t helping. The Balanced Fund lost 9.3 percent this year through end of May, said the same person. The multistrategy Global Fund fell 2.85 percent this year.

The cases against the Visium money managers bring hedge funds back into the government’s crosshairs three years after billionaire Steven A. Cohen’s SAC Capital Advisors pleaded guilty to securities fraud and paid a record $1.8 billion fine to settle insider-trading charges.

Several firms that were under scrutiny during the government’s multiyear insider-trading probe shuttered after their employees were charged. FrontPoint Partners closed in 2011 amid client withdrawals after former health-care money manager Chip Skowron was charged with securities fraud. He was sentenced that year to five years in prison.

Diamondback’s Example

Diamondback Capital Management closed in 2012 after former money manager Todd Newman was accused of insider trading. Though he was found guilty, prosecutors later dropped their charges and Diamondback was eventually refunded a penalty it paid to the government in connection with the case.

According to Wednesday’s indictment, Valvani hired a consultant to get information about the approval status of a generic drug. Valvani is accused of using the information to trade in stocks, and passing the information to Plaford, who used it to trade credit default swaps, prosecutors said.