What to Know
- Leon Cooperman allegedly used access to corporate executives to trade on an asset sale by a gas company before it was announced publicly
- He told CNBC that the charges were "without merit"
- His fund, Omega Advisors, manages more than $5 billion in assets
Federal officials charged Leon Cooperman, one of the world's biggest and most successful hedge fund managers, with insider trading on Wednesday.
Cooperman - who lives in Short Hills and is a major donor to Columbia University, St. Barnabas Medical Center and a variety of Jewish causes - faces civil charges that he used access to corporate executives to trade on an asset sale by a gas company before it was announced publicly.
The Securities and Exchange Commission alleged that Cooperman bought shares in Atlas Pipeline Partners after learning from an executive that the company was planning to sell a natural gas processing facility.
The SEC also alleged that Cooperman urged the executive to tell a fabricated story if asked about the fund manager's trading activity.
Cooperman told CNBC that the charges were "without merit" and that regulators offered a settlement he considered unacceptable.
His fund, Omega Advisors, manages more than $5 billion in assets.
