attorney for the southern district of new york... >> narrator: sac capital agreed to plead guilty as corporation. >> for engaging in insider trading that was substantial, pervasive, and on a scale without precedent... >> narrator: under a proposed agreement with prosecutors, sac would cease to operate as a hedge fund, and as sole owner, steven cohen would pay the largest insider trading fine in history. >> in the record amount of $1.8 billion. >> narrator: and u.s. attorney preet bharara says the insider trading investigations will continue. >> a number of people have been charged and convicted, and the investigation remains ongoing. it doesn't matter who you are, how much money you have, who you're connected to. you have to play by the same rules as everyone else. you know, rules are rules and the law is the law. >> narrator: cohen has not been charged with insider trading. the judge who sentenced raj rajaratnam questions if there is enough evidence. >> smith: the government alleged that sac capital was, quote, "a veritable magnet of market cheaters." and they then decided to indict

and failing the grade, turns out former sac capital advisers manager matthew martoma may have learned how to fudge the numbers after court documents show he falsified his transcripts while at harvard. "countdown to the closing bell" starts right now. ♪ ♪ liz: good afternoon, everybody, i'm liz claman. it is the last hour of trading. you know, indecisive might be the best word to describe the day. investors are taking the lousy december jobs number pretty much in stride, blaming it on the cold weather that maybe kept people out of stores or kept people out of jobs. said simply, it was an outlier number, but it did cause investors to rush to the safety of treasuries. take a look at the ten-year yield, it's at 2.86% as the yield came down, the price of treasuries went up. a little concerned, perhaps, about the stock market. now, we know one executive who's presumably looking for a new job today, tim o'shaughnessy saying he's stepping down this year. living social is not publicly traded, but there are a lot of guess about them being -- questions about them being the big competitor to grou

sac capital pled guilty to insider trading and paid a fine of $1.8 billion. a record amount.cted. the feds hope the case could land cohen. tonight's fantastic episode airs on pbs. martin, you mentioned first call. that's the thing that separated stephen cohen from other people. he paid the banks so much money in commissions often overpaid them so they would call him first with information. i think people would say what's wrong with that and who is getting hurt there? >> that's just the beginning of it. first calls don't necessarily contain insider information that you or i couldn't dig up if we were diligent and had resources to do it. if you're willing to pay higher commissions than anybody else on wall street, you're getting first calls that count. it goes beyond that. that's just the beginning. you pay a lot of commissions, you get a lot of favors. you're a good client. they call you with information. whether that information actually is proprietary information and whether you trade on it is the next set of questions. >> you were able to obtain footage of steve cohen's dep

continuing the conversation with bloomberg businessweek's sheila on sac capital. allenge for this year. it is technically no longer a hedge fund. >> the government indicted sac firmfrim, -- a firm, the pled guilty and they did not charge cohen himself. the firm cannot manage outside money and it will be a family cohen's money.g >> a leaner operation. as you mentioned, mathew martoma's jury selection begins monday. this person is pivotal to what happens next. there have been so many people saying why doesn't he flip? he has so much to lose and nothing to gain. what are your thoughts? >> it is a mystery. he has three children, a wife, a house. why would he fly on his -- why would he fall on his sword for cohen? he hassomething happens, decided not to cooperate. people go on trial. -- he decided to go on trial. he may be convinced he is innocent. cohen crossing his fingers martoma continues with this stance. >> how long will jury selection take? , theyusually takes 2 days, need to find jurors who have not read a lot of negative headlines about sac. >> sheila, thank yo

for stop, sac capital front and center.he case against it, as far as insider trading goes, the developments yesterday in the trial of matthew mark, -- martoma. this story has been going on more than a year now. you have stopped counting, of course. that there was a bombshell that went off yesterday, concerning information the fbi gave to the star witness. it? was why is it important for the case? ask the dr. on cross-examination , the fbi told him they were grains of sand wanted in the arrest of someone else. they have never completely cohen washat colin -- really the target and it was about him all the time. was the fbi's stupid? why would they give up that information to somebody they eventually wanted to question? what is the strategy? >> they were trying any tactic that seemed like it might possibly work. in other words, do not worry about you. we are not going to throw you in jail. we are really after this big guy. thought this pressure tactic might persuade gillman to help them, which he eventually did. >> how is the

the jury selection is under way in the case of another former sac capital trader. kate kelly is on that story for us. what do you have? >> reporter: i'm standing in front of the court where the jury pool is currently being questioned by the judge. there are about 40, 45 people still in the room at last check and they are going through a number of questions about legal background, any connections or biases against the united states or against sac. a few people have been eliminated but interestingly, the jury pool which i would say is predominantly white and middle aged, contains a woman whose cousin actually was an employee of sac capital at some point. she has not been eliminated, nor has a gentleman who actually runs a debt capital markets unit at a bank. so some interesting perspectives we may find in that jury pool. of course, they have to get it down to 12 plus the alternates. hopefully that will happen sometime today, maybe within the next hour or two, after which we get opening arguments. just a reminder, this case involves insider trading by a fom former sac

trial be the bookend to the government's case against sac capital? >> that point is hotly debated.his is a big dÉnouement of the investigation. he's the most important guy he was able to come up with that i thought he would be the key that would deliver cohen to them. they've alleged that he shared information that may have been illegal. >> was this the 2000 eight conversation? >> it was a 20 minute phone call in 2008 after which he liquidated a huge position in a lawn and why it. he stands accused of paying a givingof doctors of illegal information about a couple of drug trials. he thwarted the government's plans by refusing to cooperate. >> can you help us understand -- when i read sheila's great piece in business week, it talks about how they kept saying you need to bring up something with an edge. has anyone yet to find what an edge means? find thebasically to material nonpublic information. they have alleged that this defendant was basically playing in a private casino with coveted insider information. you have allegedly slides that were shared with him. call and all of this c

dozens of people have been convict it of fraud charges and or traders targets and executives at sac capitalnd of course the galleon group. galleon the cofounder raj rajaratnam is perhaps the biggest fish caught her he is serving an 11 year sentence for masterminding one of the biggest insider trading schemes in decades. lucky us, judge richard hollowell who presided over the 112 -- inetired in 2012 when does now for a bloomberg exclusive. tell us, what do you make of this latest trial question were >> it's a continuation, the next chapter in the government's 10 year push against corruption on wall street. there are probably more chapters to come, but this is a big one. >> i'm sure it wasn't easy -- with the government have been able to obtain a conviction of michael steinberg case and with this case have as much momentum behind it had they not been able to win the convictions in the raj rajaratnam case and send him to jail? >> they all build upon each other. there were no wire tapes in the steinberg case. >> the weight of evidence doesn't seem to be nearly as heavy. >> for the government go

and stephen cohen of sac capital was one of the biggest winners today. the firm is shutting down its investment advisory business after pleading guilty to securities fraud. the hedge fund owned almost one million intercept chairs as of november 7, translating to an intraday gain of more than $200 million if the state is unchanged. back to you, pimm. those are the headlines. >> i know, you were going to go there. new jersey governor chris christie apologized for a traffic jam that was triggered by an aide as an act of political revenge. >> i believe that all the people affected by this conduct deserve this apology and that is why i'm giving it to them. i also need to apologize to them for my failure as the governor of this state. to understand the true nature of this problem sooner than i did. >> in response, governor chris christie fire the staffer, saying the conduct was completely unacceptable. >> i am embarrassed and humiliated by the conduct of some of the people on my team. there is no doubt in my mind that the conduct they exhibited is completely u

sac capital. ♪ theur twitter question of day, what would you sacrifice for a lower cell phone bill? much do you pay? , it'san't even say embarrassing. >> we are all paying hundreds of dollars a month. what would you sacrifice? last network coverage, texting? kids, i imagine a data plan must be through the roof. tweet us with that answer. everyone.rning, i'm tom keene. we have a lot to talk about this hour. futures, negative two, dow futures, -16. our guest host, doug lebda, founder of tree.com and lending tree.com. here is scarlet with a top headlines. >> unemployment in europe stuck at a record high. the euro area, 12.1% last month. it has been holding stable at that level since april. with economic growth rate forecast at one percent, economists don't expect a significant drop in unemployment. soccer's world cup in qatar will be delayed in a few months -- a few months in order to play the games and cooler weather. body nowthe governing says the games will be played between the middle of november and mid-january. that will be a change. stock up now because the supply low.lveeta run

the trial of former sac capital portfolio manager matthew martoma gets under way today.cused of insider trading information about clinical trials. martoma, arrested in november 2012, has pleaded not guilty and is not cooperating with prosecutors. the trial comes less than a month after another sac trader, michael steinberg, was convicted of insider trading. in november, sac pleaded guilty to fraud charges. steve cohen has denied wrongdown and hasn't been criminally charged. former ubs executive raul wyle is expected to plead not guilty today to tax fraud conspearssy in a florida court. he was charged five years ago with allegedly helping 17,000 americans avoid paying taxes on monies hidden in swiss bank accounts. in 2009, ubs paid a record $780 million fine and agreed to hand over names of u.s. clients, breaking switzerland's tradition of banking secretly. >>> u.s. authorities and regulators are expected to announced the jpmorgan will pay more than $2 billion in fines for failing to warn about bernie madoff's ponzi schemes. but no bank executives will be charged. the ban

the move here, that's hundreds of millions of dollars in gains if that position is still held by sac capital. back to you. >> thank you. another big story right now that we're following, the white house is shaking up obamacare. eamon javers is on the beat. >> reporter: that's right. this reporting coming from the "wall street journal." as of right now, the "washington post" reporting the obama administration getting ready to jettison the company contracted to do the work on healthcare.gov that has been such a political disaster for this administration. the "washington post" reporting now that a $90 million contract is in the works for accenture to come in and fix up the problems with healthcare.gov. it has done some work previously on california's health insurance exchange so they would seem to be well positioned here to step in but obviously, a big, big change here if this information bears out. the white house has not confirmed this report to us just yet. we are waiting for a white house press briefing which was scheduled for about 15 minutes ago. as these things go, it's drifted a little

>> talking about jobs, the recent election happened today, the former portfolio manager at sac capitalers tried to ban the use of the word greed during the trial. basically because it had an emotional connotation and did not present any facts. the new york times says of the request was rejected. what this point set to me is how hard it is to prosecute these guys. it is so hard for the jury to understand what happened, they have to resort things like greed. >> it brings up a philosophical sort of a question here. greed itself. we all know the quote, greed is good. think about our economy. think about capitalism. greed is part of what fires that. when is that tipping point? things withe insider, from my perspective, these guys are on the playing field but they are cheating. get them off the playing field so that everyone can play a fair game. it is not greed that is inherently bad, it is breaking the law. >> there is a desire for just more, regardless of what you have got. that may be the definition of greed. in this case that might not prove to be terribly complicated. try toss the defe

then we are also keeping ni on ex-sac capital manager. >> jury selection? >> it starts today. thinkingrs started out they were going to flip this guy, and here we are in the first day of trial. >> quite markets. delayed labor report this month. we will have the jobs report on friday. futures up 7. they rebound nicely. tenure is cut in the last number of days to 2.96. euro just nothing. nymex, 93.84. this is the unemployment rate. you've got to get back to 5%. what a great trend. a lot of jobs formed here, but that is the chart for the week. that will be the chart that chairman yellen is decidedly focused on. were you warm last night? it was cold. it is the real deal. >> all you need is the right equipment to get through it. >> basically, you don't need to go outside. >> we scour the front pages this morning. let's continue this cold theme. in the midwest and the northeast, likely to be another day of record-breaking temperatures. chicago at -16 yesterday. the frozen city. this may be the coldest day across the united states in a must 20 years. more than 4000 flights were cance

dagen: the argument for why sac capital portfolio manager mathew martoma might slip on his former bossen, charlie gasparino is here with elisabeth noa week, they will go head to head straight ahead here, winners on the s&p. [ male announcer ] here's a question for you: is your tv powered by coal? atural gas? nuclear? or renewables like solar... and wind? let's find out. this is where america's electricity comes from. a diversity of energy sources helps ensure t electricity we need is reliable. take the energy quiz. energy lives here. there'sothing like being your own boss! and my customers are really liking your flat rate shipping. fedex one rate. really makes my life easier. maybe a promotion is in order. good news. i got a new title. and a raise? management couldn't make that happen. [ male announcer ] introducing fedex one rate. simple, flat rate shipping with the reliability of fedex. [ male announcer ] introducing fedex one rate. (voseeker of the sublime.ro. you can separate runway diculousness... from fashionhat flies off the shelves. and you...rent from national. because only na

now, opening arguments are set this morning in the trial of former sac capital portfolio manager matthew toma. prosecutors may have some damaging evidence about his character. court documents unveiled thursday reportedly show martoma was expelled from harvard law school in 1999 for forging grade tri transcripts and then trying to cover it up. at the same time, julia riffat will be charged as soon as this month in what is set to by britain's biggest insider trading case according to a cnbc source. joining us for more, helia. thanks indeed for joining us. insider trading convictions are very hard case toes prove. what's happening with this? >> this was a 2010. it was the biggest case that the regulator in the uk had taken on to much fanfare. 143 police officers were involved. they were looking for scouts, basically, in the aftermath of the financial crisis where the regulators had been accused of being asleep at the wheel. so this is the tail end of that. a lot of people have complained, but why has it taken so long? why has it taken four years in this case? but actually, they have come ou

and failing the grade, turns out former sac capital advisers manager matthew martoma may have learned falsified his transcripts while at harvard. "countdown to the closing bell" starts right now. ♪ ♪ liz: good afternoon, everybody, i'm liz claman. it is the last hour of trading. you know, indecisive might be the best word to describe the day. investors are taking the lousy december jobs number pretty much in stride, blaming it on the cold weather that maybe kept people out of stores or kept people out of jobs. said simply, it was an outlier number, but it did cause investors to rush to the safety of treasuries. take a look at the ten-year yield, it's at 2.86% as the

steve cohen's sac capital did even better.d nearly 1 million shares of intercept as of november. it stood to make nearly $375 million. there's cgi moving lower. it said its contract with the government over the federal health care website is going to end next month and a tough day for sears which reported quarter to date same-store sales fell by 7.4%. it also projected a fourth quarter loss wider than wall street was expecting and it was a year ago that eddie lampert, the hedge fund manager, named himself as ceo of the company. the stock is down 10% during his tenure as the chief executive. >> dom, thank you. let's talk about sears. is this a buying opportunity at these levels or is it best for investors to just stay away? >> mary gilbert and michael santoli from yahoo! finance joining us now. thanks for being here. mary, first to you. do you see value in sears? >> absolutely not. these shares are not for the faint of heart. this company is highly complex. it's being run by an asset manager, and that shows in the number they r

capital portfolio manager goes on trial. this is fresh on the heels of the michael steinberg conviction and the focus once again will sac to the the man whose initials are on the nameplate, steven a cohen. participate.it to for now, it is 56 past the hour and a means bloomberg television is taking you on the market. talkingman is done snowplows and now looking at the markets. >> for now. taking a short break. take a look at where the markets are trading today. after that first down day for stocks in 2014, now we are seeing another one. the s&p little changed. the nasdaq down by 16. iran into -- i ran into michael he saidarlier, yesterday he wasn't feeling so fantastic as we saw stocks decline. we have a long year ahead of us. let's talk options. today's options inside, restaurant review site yelp has seen a 230% climb in the past year despite never posting a profit. strategist, an big factor in options pricing is volatility. in terms of how you're looking at your trade, explain how stock volatility affects the options price. >> the interesting thing about yelp, despite its 230% rise, it has been recently range -- -bound.y rang

capital as a show of force. at the same time, though, the periods ruler of chad put somewhat -- the imperious ruler of chad put somewhat more faith in a neighboring dictator, mobutu sase sac -- mobutu sese seko. if there was ever an approval president, it was mobutu. he amassed a vast personal fortune which at its peak in 1984, by the time i got there, was estimated that $5 billion. $11 billion in today's money. he was known to charter a supersonic awkward jet -- concorde jet for shopping trips to paris. with power at home and across broad stretches of the african continent on challenge. the president of beleaguered chad was an aspiring mobutu character. he had come to power in a coup a year before i got there and quickly moved to cement his hold as president, self-proclaimed president of course. hardly a decade. he was using a secret police organization that he created to hold onto power. his message included spraying gas into the eyes, ears, and nose into his opponents, and a primitive technique of waterboarding that few have managed to survive. now he was fearing the arrival of qaddafi's tanks, power he had little ability to neutralize. it was hardly surprising that c