November trial date set for ex-hedge fund manager

NEW YORK (AP) -- A judge on Wednesday set a November trial date for the insider trading trial of a former hedge fund portfolio manager for SAC Capital Advisors.

Mathew Martoma is accused of earning $9 million in bonuses after persuading a medical professor to leak secret data from an Alzheimer's disease trial between 2006 and 2008.

U.S. District Judge Paul Gardephe set the Nov. 4 trial date during a hearing in federal court in Manhattan.

The government has alleged that Martoma's inside information enabled other investment professionals at the hedge fund founded by Steven A. Cohen to earn a quarter-billion dollars illegally. The government has called it the biggest insider trading case in history because of the size of the illicit profits.

An SAC spokesman has said the company and Cohen are cooperating with the government's inquiry and "are confident that they have acted appropriately."

Martoma, 38, of Boca Raton, Fla., has pleaded not guilty. He was arrested in November and is free on bail. His lawyer, Richard Strassberg, declined to comment after Wednesday's hearing.

At Wednesday's hearing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Arlo Devlin-Brown said the government plans to subpoena the University of Michigan to obtain access to confidential parts of a computer system that contains potential evidence. The judge said he will stage a hearing in July if the university challenges the subpoena.