Reuters reports that it has gained access to a letter addressed to investors from SAC Capital Advisors (SAC) that states the hedge fund will no longer cooperate "unconditionally" with a United States (US) Government investigation into alleged insider trading by current and former SAC employees.

Earlier this week, Judge Richard Sullivan sentenced former hedge fund manager and a founder of Level Global Investors Anthony Chiasson to six and a half years in prison, imposing one of the harshest penalties yet in the U.S. government’s efforts to rid Wall Street of insider trading. Chiasson was also ordered to pay $5 million in fines and must also give back as much as $2 million in illegally obtained proceeds. Chiasson could have received up to ten years in prison which was the recommendation under U.S. federal guidelines based on the profits that Level Global Investors earned on the improper trades.

United States (US) federal prosecutors have stated that they have finalised an agreement to reveal the names of any known co-conspirators in the insider trading case surrounding former SAC Capital Advisors (SAC) trader Mathew Martoma, reports The Wall Street Journal (WSJ). Reportedly, prosecutors will provide the court with all known names by 31 July 2013, and any other names 30 days before Mr Martoma's trial.

SAC Capital Advisors (SAC) hedge fund manager Steven Cohen has announced that SAC will be implementing a policy next year to obtain or "claw-back" compensation from employees who use information retrieved through illegal means. According to Reuters, SAC is also preventing employees from contacting individuals outside upper management at publicly traded companies.

The United States (US) Securities and Exchanges Commission (SEC) has announced that Level Global Investors (Level Global) has agreed to pay over US$21.5 million in fines and penalties "to settle charges that its co-founder, who also served as a portfolio manager, and its analyst engaged in repeated insider trading in the securities of [Dell Inc (Dell)] and [Nvidia Corp (Nvidia)]".

Prosecutors filed insider trading charges against former KPMG senior account executive Scott London. London’s co-conspirator Bryan Shaw was not criminally charged but was named in a related civil action taken by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Both men publicly confessed to their misconduct prior to the charges being filed.

Reuters reports that KPMG has resigned as auditor of two California-based companies, Herbalife Ltd (Herbalife) and Skechers USA Inc, following a United States (US) Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) inquiry into insider trading allegations involving former KPMG senior partner Scott London.

The Hong Kong (HK) Securities and Future Commission (SFC) has announced a 30 month suspension and HK$500,000 fine for Sky Cheung Shi Gaii "for trading with a concealed securities account, putting himself in a conflict of interest position and making false and inaccurate declarations in a newspaper investment column".

The Australian reports that stockbroker Thomas Conradt has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit securities fraud and two counts of securities fraud in the United States (US) District Court in New York. Reportedly, Mr Conradt was a flatmate of Australian financial research analyst Trent Martin, who had received information in confidence from a New Zealand banker who was working on IBM's secret $US1.2 billion takeover of software company SPSS in 2009.

The United States (US) Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has announced that it has settled insider trading charges which had been laid against Ren Feng and Zeng Huiyu. The SEC stated that the charges arose arose when Mr Feng and Ms Huiyu traded Nexen Inc shares in 2012 while in possession of non-public information about an impending takeover.