Federal prosecutors unveiled criminal charges Thursday against famed hedge fund SAC Capital, citing "institutional practices" that encouraged a culture of using inside information to gain illegal profits.
The government charged SAC Capital with wire fraud and four counts of securities fraud. The indictment cites activity that spanned more than a decade from roughly 1999 to 2010, saying employees at the hedge fund engaged in a "pattern" of collecting nonpublic information about dozens of publicly traded companies.
"Unlawful conduct by individual employees and an institutional indifference to that unlawful conduct resulted in insider trading that was substantial, pervasive and on a scale without known precedent in the hedge fund industry," said the indictment.