U.S. asks jurors to convict former SAC fund manager Martoma

By Nate Raymond and Joseph Ax NEW YORK (Reuters) – Mathew Martoma sought out a "canary in the coal mine" to give him inside information on drug companies, a federal prosecutor said on Monday, urging jurors to convict the former SAC Capital Advisors portfolio manager of insider trading. Martoma, 39, built up contacts with doctors involved in a clinical trial of an Alzheimer's drug, which paid off in a "dramatic way" when one of them told him the final results, Assistant U.S. Attorney Eugene Ingoglia said. But Martoma's defense lawyer, Richard Strassberg, told jurors the entire case came down to the unreliable testimony of a single doctor who cooperated with the government in the hopes of avoiding prison. Martoma, Strassberg added, was the victim of a "rush to judgment" by investigators whose true target was Steven A. Cohen, the founder of SAC Capital, who has not been criminally charged.