This Just In Slash Nice Judge, Not Rakoff

Does the name Michael Steinberg mean anything to you?  Highest ranking guy at SAC Capital to be convicted of insider trading.  Just happened.

I don't understand why these guys don't just cut a deal and sing.  Sing about Steve Cohen, specifically.  If you help my boy Preet nab Steve Cohen I would bet my bottom dollar you'd not go to jail.  Maybe the man really is made of Teflon.

Regardless, check this out from The Times ...

But after a monthlong trial in Federal District Court in Manhattan – a dramatic display that illuminated the culture of a hedge fund that prosecutors now view as corrupt – the jury took only two days to reach the guilty verdict against Mr. Steinberg. The jury of nine women and three men, including two accountants and a former Postal Service worker, found him guilty on five counts of securities fraud.

Mr. Steinberg, 41, a husband and father of a young family that lives on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, appeared to faint briefly as the jury filed in to render their verdict.

Judge Richard J. Sullivan sent the jury back to the deliberation room as Mr. Steinberg’s lawyers rubbed his back, his stricken wife looking on from the front row. The judge sent out for some juice and asked Mr. Steinberg, a towering figure, if he could stand and walk.

Mr. Steinberg, his face ashen, complied.

“Yeah, I think I’m O.K.,” he said.

A courthouse nurse examined Mr. Steinberg. And his brother, who is a doctor, also checked on him.

After a 30-minute delay, the jury assembled back into the courtroom, delivering the verdict as Mr. Steinberg stared blankly, his eyes sunken.

That's it?  Only two days to convict the guy on five counts?  I love the part about the judge sending for some juice.  I don't remember them offering Aaron Hernandez any juice.

It will be interesting to see what happens to Mathew Martoma, about whom I painted this ...

... in the manner of Roy Lichtenstein.

Right now, somebody on Martoma's legal team is saying something like "Hey Mathew.  No way we thought they'd convict Steinberg.  Now it's a whole new ballgame and we've got to start talking about cutting a deal.  And right now!"

Meanwhile, it's conceivable that the Stanford Whale is completing the construction of an entirely new identity for himself and his family -- foreign citizenship, fake passports, drivers' licenses, SS#s, whatever.  Me?  I would go with French citizenship, then buy a sprawling villa in Cuba.  An hour or so from Key West in one of those massive cigarette boats and you're safe.  Pay extra and I'm told this guy will drive ...