In a case likely to have ongoing ramifications, the Second Circuit recently upheld the conviction of Matthew Martoma,1 a former portfolio manager for Stephen Cohen’s SAC Capital. In so doing, the court clarified, at least for now, the Second Circuit’s view on an important open issue as to the law of insider trading. A divided court reversed its own 2015 opinion in United States v. Newman.2 Newman held that a “meaningfully close personal relationship” between a tipper and a tippee, and an exchange of something “pecuniary or similarly valuable in nature” to the tipper was required to prove an insider trading violation.3 Newman had a substantial impact on insider trading prosecutions in the Second Circuit because it extended the personal benefit test laid out in the seminal case of Dirks v. SEC.4 In Martoma, the Second Circuit reversed course on the need for a close personal relationship requirement, noting that the recent Supreme Court decision in Salman v. U.S.5 “abrogated” the requirement and “was no longer good law”.6 This Management Alert will provide the relevant history surrounding the issue, and offer some possible scenarios as to what may follow.
Background
A. Dirks
Until Dirks the law relating to liability for insider trading by tippees was unclear. In Dirks, the Supreme Court addressed the applicability of insider trading law with respect to those who traded on confidential nonpublic information received from an insider. Dirks concluded that the appropriate test for determining whether or not there was a breach of the antifraud provisions of federal securities laws turned on whether an insider benefited by tipping the material nonpublic information to another non-insider. Thus, the test after Dirks was whether an insider breached a duty by tipping the information for his or her personal benefit, noting that “absent some personal gain [to the insider] there has been no breach of duty to stockholders. And absent a breach by the insider there is no derivative breach [by the tippee].7
B. Newman
Interpreting Dirks, Newman’s requirement of a “meaningfully close personal relationship… that generates an exchange that is objective, consequential, and represents at least a potential gain of a pecuniary or similarly valuable in nature” set a high standard for the government to meet.8 Newman also required the tippee to know not only of the insider’s breach, but that the insider acted in order to receive a personal benefit.9 As such, it significantly curtailed cases involving remote tippees, like the defendants in Newman, who knew neither the tipper nor the original tippee.
With certiorari denied, Newman never made it to the United States Supreme Court -- but soon thereafter the Ninth Circuit case Salman v. U.S. did.10
C. Salman
In Salman, the Supreme Court reaffirmed the personal benefit requirement set forth in Dirks, but clarified the standard by concluding that the tipper’s personal benefit need not be pecuniary; the benefit may be inferred when an insider gifts information to a relative. Critically, the Court stated that, to the extent the Second Circuit, in Newman held that an insider must receive something “pecuniary or similarly valuable in nature” in exchange for the information, that requirement is inconsistent with the Supreme Court’s holding in Dirks.11 Thus, Salman put to rest that a tipper must receive a pecuniary or other tangible benefit, holding that gifting information to a trading relative or friend was a sufficient personal benefit in and of itself. Purposefully left open in Salman, however, remained the issue of how close a relationship must there be between a tipper and tippee outside the context of relatives or friends sufficient to satisfy the personal benefit requirement set forth in Dirks.12
However, although the Court declined to address more broadly the nature of what constituted a personal benefit, it rejected the Government’s argument that disclosure of confidential information to anyone, as opposed to a relative, friend or one otherwise acquainted with the tipper, would constitute a personal benefit sufficient to satisfy Dirks.
D. Martoma
Turning now to Martoma. Martoma was convicted in February 2014 and sentenced to nine years in prison because he received and traded on inside information relating to poor results in a clinical trial for an Alzheimer drug, enabling SAC to generate profits and avoid losses totaling $275 million after the results became public. A doctor who had confidential information relating to the clinical trials provided the information to Martoma. Martoma argued on appeal that the evidence against him was insufficient under Newman, which opinion was issued while his appeal was pending. Martoma argued that under Newman, his conviction should be thrown out because the relevant physician was only a casual acquaintance, and, although routinely paid as a consultant to SAC, he was not paid for the two consulting meetings during which he delivered the tips and thus there was insufficient evidence the doctor received a personal benefit.
The Second Circuit held that Newman’s holding was overturned by Salman, which held that proving a pecuniary benefit is unnecessary if a tipper gifts information to a relative or friend because in such circumstances a benefit can be inferred. The Second Circuit also noted that, in any event, the doctor in question had received numerous consulting fees as a result of his relationship with Martoma, so he did receive a pecuniary gain from which a rational trier of fact could have found a quid pro quo in their consulting relationship.
