>> narrator: steven a. cohen went from a small-time options trader to one of the most successful hedge fund managers of all time. >> steve cohen is a legend on wall street. he's amassed one of the great american fortunes. >> he founded sac capital and started generating some of the best returns out there. >> his track record, his performance were amazing, and everybody wanted in. >> narrator: but how did the king of hedge funds do it? >> how does anybody make 60% a year? >> well, the feds are asking that right now. >> narrator: behind the multiyear federal investigation of insider trading at many wall street hedge funds. >> the deal looks phenomenal. >> there was a large network of insiders at a lot of these funds. >> narrator: and the trail that led from traders... >> the phone rings and says, "he's going to upgrade amazon in six minutes." 30 seconds later, i made about a half-million dollars. >> narrator: to information brokers... >> they told me they were going to arrest everybody. >> narrator: to sac capital.

criminal enterprise and we're going to declare it that and charge the firm criminally. >> narrator: steven cohen'syers have argued that he has never been involved in insider trading. cohen has repeatedly declined frontline's requests for an interview. >> woodruff: tonight's addition of frontline, "to catch a trader," airs on most pbs stations later this evening. >> woodruff: the u.s. senate took action to extend emergency unemployment insurance today, but, as newshour congressional correspondent kwame holman reports, many challenges still remain before benefits are restored. >> on this vote the yeas are 60, the nays are 37. >> reporter: the drive to restore benefits to the long- term unemployed cleared its first hurdle this morning, as the senate voted to proceed with debate. democratic majority leader harry reid argued millions of people need the help, and so does the economy. >> americans use their unemployment benefits to buy food and fuel at local gas stations, to pay the landlord or to purchase a child a winter coat. that's why for every $1 we spend on unemployment insurance, the economy grow

he worked for the hedge fund sac capital and steven cohen who a hedge friend of mine called the lance. he used tactics that many considered cheating to be one of the biggest winners his corner of the world has ever seen. >> sac capital was a giant among hedge funds and cohen emasked incredible wealth including a sprawling mansion in greenwich, connecticut. a $62 million beach house in the hamptons and multiple apartments in manhattan including this $115 million mid town duplex. cohen also assembled one of the most valuable private modern art collections in the world and he has given tens of millions to charity. in 2002, cohen sent out christmas cards where he posed as king cohen. by 2008, his personal fortune reached $8 billion. beating the stock market year after year, cohen's returns even with his first calls seemed too good to be true. >> and they were. sac capital pled guilty to insider trading and paid a fine of $1.8 billion. a record amount. cohen himself has never been indicted. the feds hope the case could land cohen. tonight's fantastic episode airs on pbs. martin, you mentio

selection began in the insider trading trial of matthew mark tomah, a one-time portfolio manner at steven a. cohen'sedge fund. he's one of a current or former s.e.c. employees facing criminal charges for using proprietary information from clinical drug trials to trade millions of dollars worth of pharmaceutical shares. prosecutors in new york city call it the most lucrative insider trading scheme in u.s. history. >>> more fraud allegations involving civil servants. more than 100 consider rent and former new york city workers including dozens of policemen and firefighters have been charged with faking psychiatric problems in order to get social security disability benefits. officials say the scam dates back more than two decades for some of those take noon custody today. >>> still ahead, legislation to renew jobless benefits clears a senate hurdle. but what are the odds a real deal gets done? ♪ >>> ford's ceo allan malaly subject of numerous reports he was leaving to run microsoft will take at the automaker at least through the end of this year. in an interview with the associated press, he said he w

we're really after a man named steven a. cohen.t suspected that the government, the fbi, was after steven cohen, the founder of s.a.c., not the traders that that work for him that have since been taken to trial. >> made all the more clear, kate. thanks very much. >>> one hot-button issue that's sweeping the web, income inequality. it's going to be a part of the state of the union address next week. carol roth explaining today why income inequality is not a problem. it got the attention of jon fortt. he and carol duking it out all day on twitter. we have carol on the program, along with jon and the rest of the panel. did you change your mind? >> what do you think, kelly? >> what's your basic argument? why isn't income inequality a problem? >> i think there are a lot of issues. but it boils down to this. it makes the argument that there is one pie. and somehow, if you have a slice of pie and want to get more of it, it needs to come at the expense of someone else. and in america, that is blatantly untrue. our economy grows by growing

this would connect directly back to steven cohen. >> there was a crucial 20-minute phone call beforetensibly, cohen gave permission to make the trades. we don't know what questions he asked, if any, about the nature of how martoma had his hunch or why he was motivated to do this. he's said in a deposition reportedly that he does not recall. so really, it's martoma and cohen who know about it and not many else. >> after that five-count guilty verdict against michael steinberg, you have to wonder how martoma thinks his chances are right now. >> very true. his wife rosemary has been there every day. he hasn't had extended family in the court. his wife has faithfully been by his side. she was very involved in choosing the jury. she was giving advice and making selections. that's very veinteresting. >> more people across the country after watching that frontline documentary will know what's going on in all of this. kate, thank you very much. >>> sears now under a lot of pressure at this hour. there's more breaking news in the retail space. courtney reagan brings us up to speed. >> i'm not

several other members who were not able to be with us today include simon stevens from cohen,health, jay , and lloyd dean with dignity health. say a specialo thanks to our two major funders. first, kaiser permanente. a special appreciation to george halverson. second, to the robert wood johnson foundation represented by andy. i would like to turn the program over to bill ritter, who will outline the role of states in health care cost control and the huge number of policy levers available to states to enhance quality and reduce cost of rate increases over time. governor ritter. [applause] thank you. good afternoon. talking about the state's role and policy levers to moderate health-care cost increases, i want to make a few enteral points. are chapters in our report on the health care problem, health care act, and what the federal government can do to help states control costs. this press conference will focus on the state policy levers and are specific recommendations. although the title of the commission and report itself talk about cost, increasing quality is of equal importance to

. >> steven cohen in the news for years. the feds are going after him. what drew their suspicion? insider issue on insider trading. in 2005 and 2006, the investigation ran through a trial and after that trial, they started to get on to steve cohen. >> why was steve a target? was it to a point where he was just making so much money and so high profile that -- >> yeah. >> -- they decided to -- >> that's not enough but, yes, he was making -- he was returning to his investors 30% a year on average after taking a 50% cut of the profits and a 3% fee on the assets under management, which means he is making over $60% a year. i don't know about you, but that's a bit suspicious. >> it's pretty good. how did he do it? >> well, that is the question. do he do it because he cheated or because his traders cheated and he applied a little baselineness to the situation? >> what does the state say? he, obviously, did a deal with the government. >> the government believes that he cheated. his company was indicted as a criminal operation. >> how did he cheat? what did he do? >> insider trading and hav

once again will sac to the man who founded capital, the man whose initials are on the nameplate, steven a cohenow, 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 range i look to the volatility to see if that is conducive to the trade. the implied vola