November 20th, 2012 at 2:14PM

Insider trading case target a major campaign donor

I have a problem with calling Steven A. Cohen a “donor”. A “donor” usually picks a side and give a decent amount of support. 

What Steven A. Cohen has done isn’t donating, it’s buying off. When you are splashing money around to all parties and all kinds of Senators, most who don’t even serve the state you live in, you aren’t donating to them, you are giving them hush-money. 

From Politico: 

Steven A. Cohen, the multi-billionaire hedge fund owner implicated in an insider-trading scandal, is a major political donor who has contributed heavily to big players in both parties.

Cohen and his wife Alexandra have donated more than $450,000 to the campaign committees and leadership PACs of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and other key lawmakers during the last several election cycles, Federal Election Commission records show.


Cohen also gave $1 million to the Republican Governors Association during the 2009-10 election cycle, according to a Jan. 2011 report from the Center for Public Integrity, a watchdog group.


Cohen is the founder of SAC Capital Advisors and has been estimated by Forbes to be worth as much as $8 billion.


Cohen was implicated in a $276 million insider-trading case brought by the the Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday.


In its criminal complaint, the SEC alleged that Mathew Martoma, a former trader with CR Intrinsic Investors — an SAC Capital Advisors affiliate — obtained inside information in 2008 about the progress of clinical trials for an Alzheimer’s drug being developed by two companies.


According to the SEC’s complaint, Martoma “illegally obtained confidential details about the clinical trial from Dr. Sidney Gilman, who served as chairman of the safety monitoring committee overseeing the trial.”


“This massive repositioning allowed CR Intrinsic and the affiliated advisory firm to reap approximately $82 million in profits and $194 million in avoided losses for a total of more than $276 million in illicit gains,” the SEC alleged.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1112/84109.html#ixzz2CntW9FGz

Fun times! 

2 notes #Politics#Economics#Campaign Finance#donations#GOP#DNC#Steven A. Cohen
February 27th, 2012 at 12:45PM

Here’s a bunch of millionaires petitioning to pay higher taxes, but when they were put on the spot, they refuse to donate to the US Treasury Department. 

This brings me back to the smoke & mirrors campaign of Warren Buffet. Think what you want about NJ Governor, Chris Christie, but he earned a lot of respect from me when he told Warren Buffet to finally ‘just write a check and shut up’ about supposedly “wanting” to pay more in taxes. 

The reality is that Warren Buffet makes so much damn money that he wouldn’t care WHAT rate he was taxed at. He’s at the end of his life and clearly no longer cares for the money, especially considering the fact that he gave almost all of it away to Bill Gate’s charity anyway. 

Increasing the taxes on those that make $100k+ doesn’t hurt the ultra-rich, it hurts the middle class and the lower tiers of the upper class. You know, those families that make good money, but not enough to stow away millions in off-shore accounts or setup shell-corporations to get their effective tax rate below 15%. 

I used to admire Buffet, but he’s become a righteous, delusional prick ever since he gave away the majority of his fortune. 

@Suga_Shane

1 note #Politics#Higher Taxes#Warren Buffet#Donations#1%#99%#Economics#Bill Gates