The office of Preet Bharara, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, released a short statement announcing that it would move to dismiss charges against Michael Steinberg "and six other insider trading defendants."
Bloomberg reports that "In a related move, the Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday dropped its civil case against five of six cooperators as well as Diamondback Capital and Level Global."
The New York Times reports, "The moves to dismiss were done through filings with the clerk's office of the Federal District Court in Manhattan. They differed from the often high-octane press statements from Mr. Bharara's office that routinely accompanied announcements of new convictions during the long-running crackdown on insider trading in the hedge fund industry."
The Wall Street Journal also has coverage.
Is Mr. Bharara or the government going to reimburse these guys for their legal fees? For the income they lost during the time they spent dealing with legal matters instead of working? Is he going to compensate them for the damage to reputation they suffered among their friends and neighbors and even family members before it became clear more widely that the charges were not founded in the law?
We are proud to say FutureOfCapitalism was early and right (and for a while, pretty lonely) on this one. See the December 19, 2013 post Steinberg Insider Trading Case Goes Too Far and the April 23, 2014 post Hurricane Carter and Michael Steinberg.
