Securities and Exchange Commission attorneys are recommending that no action be taken against Wall Street executive John Mack or Westport’s Pequot Capital Management Inc. in an insider-trading probe that led to allegations of political interference within the SEC.
Art Samberg, chairman of the $7 billion hedge fund, sent a note to clients today disclosing the decision by SEC enforcement staff not to bring charges against the company or its employees, the Wall Street Journal Online said.
Last June, The New York Times reported that federal regulators were investigating Pequot for possible insider trading. (See WestportNow June 23, 2006)
The newspaper cited government officials briefed on the case. Pequot is based in the Nyala Farms office complex on Greens Farms Road off I-95.
The SEC staff also has made the same decision with regard to Mack, according to the Journal. Mack, the chief executive of investment house Morgan Stanley Inc., has not made a public announcement of the decision.
The agency launched an investigation last year to determine whether Pequot had received a tip in 2001 from an individual about an upcoming $5.3 billion merger between General Electric Capital Corp. and Heller Financial Inc.
Mack, a longtime friend of Pequot’s founder who for a time served as chairman of the fund, had for months denied through a Morgan Stanley spokeswoman that he engaged in wrongdoing.
Mack was head of Credit Suisse First Boston, one of Heller Financial’s advisers in the GE deal.
