SAC pays bonuses to keep staff

It tur🌸ns out that being the target of the government’s i𒁃nsider-trading crackdown has perks.

Hedge-fund behemoth SAC Capital Advisors boosted bonuses yesterday in a bid to keep jittery employees from jumping ship as the embattled firm🎀 fights i🍃nsider-trading charges.

SAC promised to boost 2014 perfoꦗrmance bonuses by 3.5 percent for portfolio managers of long-short funds, macro funds 🐓and so-called quant funds, according to a person with knowledge of the situation.

It also g💮uaranteed long-short stock analysts that they will receive a minimum of $300,000✃ in pay next year, the person said.

The🍸 sweetener comes on top of promises made earlier this year to raise 2013 bonuses for long-short equity traders and macro managers by 3 percent.

SAC, founded by famed trader Steve Cohen, saw outside invest♛ors run for the exits after pros🤪ecutors hit the $14 billion firm with criminal charges.

In July, Manhat♛tan US Attorney Preet Bharara accused the firm of running a decades-long insider trading scheme “on a scale without precedent.”

In addition to the criminal cಞase against SAC, Cohen also faces civil charges brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission for his alleged failure to supervise two former employees who face separate trials for insider trading in Nov🍨ember.

After investors have had a chance to redeem their money, SAC’s assets are expected to drop to roughly $9 billion — mostly Cohen’s and employee money — from 🥀$15 billion at the start🦂 of this year.

Stamford, Conn.-based SAC has long been knoဣwn for its generous compensation, which is one reason so few trꦑaders have abandoned ship, sources said.

“The percentage that they pay is substantially higher tha🅰n the general marketplace,” said Bob Olman, founder of executive search firm Alpha Search 🅷Advisory Partners. “So it’s tough for them [employees] to find the same economics elsewhere.”

Hedge-f𒐪und recruiters say that some SAC traders who have looked for jobs elsewhere have come away discouraged by the potential pay cuts.

Meanwhile, Bharara is clearing the decks ahead of his criminal suit against the firm. Yesterday, Manhattan federal Judge Richard Sullivan agreed with prosecutors’📖 request to postpone the civil forfeiture suit against SAC to make way for discovery in the criminal case.

The forfeiture case, which Bharara brought at the same༺ timeꦬ as the criminal case, seeks “any and all” assets of SAC.