Omega Advisors Chief Executive Leon Cooperman said Tuesday he settled with the Securities and Exchange Commission to end an abusive regulatory process and to avoid a costly court case that he would have otherwise won. “The process in my opinion was totally abusive,” Cooperman said in a CNBC interview. “The system is broken.” Cooperman settled SEC charges of insider trading for $4.9 million two weeks ago. Cooperman said his lawyers advised him a protracted legal fight with the regulator could cost him as much as $20 million. Moreover, Cooperman questioned why the SEC originally demanded more than twice the $4.9 million he paid to settle allegations of insider trading, along with an admission of guilt and a five-year trading ban, and then seven months later they dropped those requirements and lowered the fine. In all, Omega lost about $4 billion client assets from the charges.
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