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| Winifred Jiau |
Noah Freeman, a former portfolio manager at SAC Capital Advisors, said yesterday that he received a string of "perfect" tips from expert-network consultant Winifred Jiau, even though receiving those tips was in violation of SAC policy.
His testimony stated that Jiau passed him correct information regarding the earnings at Nvidia Corp. and Marvell Technology Group during the years 2006 – 2008. Freeman in turn passed the tips along to Neil Druker (head of Sonar Capital Management), Donald Longueuil (SAC trader), and Samir Barai (founder of Barai Capital Management). Both Longueuil and Barai have already pleaded guilty, whereas Druker has yet to be accused of any crime.
Said Freeman of Jiau:
"She provided us with almost complete financial results before they were announced. It gave us the ability to know what the company was going to say before they said it. That gave us a huge leg up."
In his own defense, Druker, through his lawyer, called Freeman dishonest and was seeking to falsely implicate others at Sonar.
Jiau received $1,000 a month for her insider tips, which later rose to $5,000 per month. Payments were made via artificially high trading commissions to hide the truth. SAC, while a central figure in the case, has never been accused of wrongdoing.
Jiau has been implicated by other individuals in the expert network, nine of whom have pleaded guilty. According to Freeman, Jiau was a "very, very difficult" person to deal with, constantly rescheduling meetings or phone calling at strange hours. She once requested that Freeman ship her a dozen lobsters for Thanksgiving, then failed to pick up the shipment. From Freeman's secretary:
"Winnie never picked up her lobsters. Typical Winnie to leave 12 lobsters to die at Fed Ex. She has no heart."
If convicted, Jiau will continue to abstain from lobster for up to 25 years in the Big House.
© 2011 Hedge Fund Writer LLC
