- Anthony Vaccarino, once a portfolio manager at SAC, is working for Steve Cohen again.
- Vaccarino was interviewed by federal prosecutors during his time at SAC.
- Before joining Point72, Vaccarino was running his own fund, North Fourth Asset Management.
Anthony Vaccarino is back for his second stint under billionaire Steve Cohen.
Vaccarino, who also goes by AJ, joined Point72’s capital markets team this year. He is reporting to the head of that unit, Andrew McEntire, and working with teams across Point72’s long-short equity strategies.
His first stretch under Cohen, which came at the New York Mets' owner's first hedge fund known as SAC Capital Advisors, resulted in him being interviewed by federal prosecutors in connection with the Department of Justice’s long-running investigation into the hedge fund. In 2013, he was the fifth person at Cohen’s original fund other than the billionaire himself to receive a subpoena, following COO Sol Kumin, president Tom Conheeney, compliance head Steve Kessler, and head of trading Phil Villhauer.
Vaccarino, then working as a portfolio manager focused on consumer stocks, was described in court documents and reporter Sheelah Kolhatkar’s book on SAC, "Black Edge," as the one who passed along possible insider information on Dell from an analyst to Cohen, who later traded the stock. Vaccarino was never charged with a crime, and while SAC was shuttered and paid a $1.8 billion fine, Cohen was also never charged.
The most prominent conviction to come out of the yearslong investigation into SAC was Mathew Martoma, a former portfolio manager focused on healthcare and pharma stocks, who spent seven years in prison and was released in 2021. Former portfolio manager Michael Steinberg was also found guilty in a jury trial and was facing prison time until his charges were dropped by the government in 2015.
As a part of the settlement with the government, Cohen was barred from running outside capital for two years, during which time he and teams of portfolio managers traded his personal billions. Once the ban came to an end, Cohen relaunched his hedge fund, this time under the name Point72. The firm now manages more than $32 billion and has more than 2,800 employees, according to the Stamford-based manager’s website.
Vaccarino ran his own hedge fund, North Fourth Asset Management, out of New Jersey, but the firm closed at the end of last year. A source close to the firm said no one from his previous firm is joining Point72 alongside him.
Watch: How billionaire hedge fund titan Steve Cohen walked away from the biggest insider trading scandal in history
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