Wall Street's Steven Cohen will pay a record $1.2 billion in SEC fines, which has some wondering what will become of his associated foundations.
"The Robin Hood Foundation -- Wall Street's favorite charity -- was named, rather cheekily, for the lovable fictional character who stole from the rich to give to the poor. But with this week's news that Robin Hood board member Steven A. Cohen will pay a record $1.2 billion in fines due to insider trading at his 100%-owned firm SAC Capital Advisors, life is suddenly imitating reality in a rather uncomfortable way. According to the plea, it turns out SAC did indeed steal from the rich by insider trading, gaining an unfair edge over other investors. Indirectly, it redistributed some of those gains to the poor, via the $256 million given away by the Steven A. and Alexandra M. Cohen Foundation over the last decade to the likes of Stamford Hospital, North Shore-LIJ Health System, NYU Medical Center, and, of course, the Robin Hood Foundation, to which Cohen has donated more than $80 million." -- Jennifer Reingold, Forbes