Steve Cohen - Founder of SAC Capital Black Edge Insider Trading, Soon-to-be Casino Operator in Flushing, & Real Estate Developer who lives in Connecticut
This Report Contains our Reporting on Steve Cohen who also Owns the NY Mets
March 12, 2026 / NYC Neighborhoods / NYC Politics & Government / News Analysis & Opinion / Gotham Buzz NYC.
This section contains the reporting we have done and will do on Steve Cohen who founded SAC Capital [Steve A. Cohen Capital]. Cohen and SAC Capital were caught up in one of the largest insider trading scandals on Wall Street involving a hedge fund. After wriggling out of that one, while paying billion(s) in fines, he bought the Mets which included some rights to exploit the park land underneath CitiField stadium. Cohen then filed an application to run a casino. It's worth noting that Cohen appears to be a compulsive cheater, as after wriggling out of the insider trading scandal, and purchasing the Mets, the Mets started getting caught cheating within a year or two of Cohen's acquisition. And just as seemed to happen at SAC Capital, Cohen's Mets appeared to take on players with 'reputations' [and not the Jack Nicklaus gentlemanly 1969 Ryder Cup kind]. Reportedly, Cohen took on traders with 'reputations' for questionable trading practices before SAC Capital became the target of an insider trading investigation.
Is the NYS Gaming Commission so corrupt, misguided, ill-informed or just plain stupid - that they would allow someone with Cohen's reputation to own and operate a casino in NYC?
Apparently.
CLICK here to read our reporting on Steve Cohen, of SAC Capital Black Edge Insider Trading, who recently won [December 2025] a license to operate a casino on Flushing Meadows Corona park land.
Coming soon.
Did the NYS Gaming Commission Make a Mockery of the Law?
NYS Gaming Commission to Make Final Vote on NYC Casinos Today
December 15, 2025 / NYC Issues / NYC Business / Queens News / News Analysis & Opinion / Gotham Buzz.
With the exception of the headline and paragraph update below, the rest of this was posted before the NYS Gaming Commission vote noted above. This report represents an important back story about how TV news and NYC and NYS government officials failed their communities. It's also a report about what appears to be letting a predatory fox into the community chicken coop.
Update _ All 3 Downstate NYC Casinos Approved by NYS
Update 12.15.25 Post Vote. The NYS casino licenses approved include Ballys in the Bronx, an expansion of Resorts World Casino in Queens, and Steve SAC Capital Cohen's Metropolitan Park at Flushing Meadows Corona Park [see story below].
Resumption of original report.
Today at 1 pm, the NYS Gaming Commission is expected to vote on the final approvals of NYS casino licenses in New York City. Bally's in the Bronx and Metropolitan Park licenses will be voted upon. The final vote, according to a Spectrum News report today, is to address the following, " ... The commission is expected to ratify the board's recommendation Monday after one final review of each applicant's ethical and financial qualifications before issuing the licenses ...".
In the photo above or at right you can see community members trying to make their voices heard in the Corona neighborhood in Queens. The protesters oppose the Metropolitan Park Casino planned which will, in essence takeover some of the parkland in Flushing Meadows Corona Park. But you won't hear about this on the corporate billionaire TV News Networks, because they appear to be protecting the interests of one of their own, by not reporting this to the community.
Nowhere in Spectrum New reports did I find any discussion of Steve Cohen's SAC Capital being involved in the largest insider trading scandal in modern history involving a hedge fund. Steve Cohen named the firm he founded, SAC Capital, after himself - Steve A. Cohen. The firm was fined $1.8 BILLION. Cohen himself was not found guilty in the courts, but journalists covering the story believed that he had fostered a 'culture of corruption'. Based on how the NY Mets ball club has conducted itself since Cohen took over - that description may also apply to them.
Apparently Ethics Don't Seem to Matter Anymore - Just $$$
So, will the NYS Gaming Commission, make a mockery of the importance of ethical considerations, in the disposition of gaming licenses, by awarding Steve Cohen a license? Given how corrupt our municipal [Adams] and state governments [Cuomo √ | Hochul ?] appear to have functioned recently, I'll bet they don't give a damn. But we'll find out later today.
Here are a few related links. The third link will take you to a report by NY Magazine goes to the heart of the possible motivating forces behind the actions of campaign funded government officials, the fourth link is a very short video discussing how Steve Cohen appeared to dodge conviction in the courts, and the fifth link is to an earlier report on the back story we did on Steve SAC Capital Cohen's 'Black Edge'.
- CLICK here to read the rest of our report on NYS Gaming Commission seems to Ignore Ethics Section of the Law in Approving Steve SAC Capital Cohen's Metropolitan Park Casino in Flushing Meadows Corona Park in Queens NYC.
Steve Cohen SAC Capital Metropolitan Park Casino Queens
How did Steve Cohen's Casino License Bid Get this Far?
Did Billionaire Network TV News, Ignore Cohen's SAC Capital Insider Trading History, in Order to Enable the Fellow Billionaire to Keep Gaming Us & the System?
December 1, 2025 / NYC Business / NYC Politics & Government / News Analysis & Opinion / Gotham Buzz NYC.
SAC [Steve A. Cohen] Capital
Pleads Guilty to the Largest Insider Trading Scandal in Modern History
The short story on Steve Cohen is that in 1992 he founded a company that operated a number of hedge funds. He was so proud of it, that he put his name on it - SAC Capital - which is short for Steve A. Cohen Capital. Fast forward less than 20 years to 2010 and the SEC is investigating SAC Capital associates for insider trading. Fast forward another three years and SAC Capital has paid $1.8 billion and has pleaded guilty to insider-trading charges. It's one of the biggest insider trading scandals in modern history and the largest involving a hedge fund.
For details on the Steven A. Cohen Capital Insider Trading case see -
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.A.C._Capital_Advisors
Did Cohen Foster a Culture of Corruption at SAC?
Cohen himself never personally pleaded guilty, in part because it's difficult to prove scienter - which is a legal term for intent or knowledge of wrongdoing. But that said, the Steve A. Cohen Capital firm, was founded by and run by Cohen for 20 years. And one of Cohen's high school chums, Michael Steinberg, became one of SAC's most senior portfolio managers. Steinberg was cited by one of his analysts, Horvath, as essentially telling Horvath to seek out non-public information, that they could trade on, which in essence is insider trading.
And while the Steven A. Cohen Capital firm says they take compliance with regulations seriously, a report by American University Business Law Review notes that SAC refused to give them even one example of its refusal to hire someone because of compliance concerns. On the other hand, the Steven A. Cohen Capital firm did hire people, such as Richard S. Lee, who was known to be a risk, as he had just been fired by a Chicago firm for altering his holdings in their accounting system on his first day on the job. Even SAC Capital Legal had reportedly advised against hiring him. Lee eventually ended up as one of the firm's employees who was convicted.
For further details on Cohen's alleged malfeasance use the following links.
https://digitalcommons.wcl.american.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1071&context=aublr
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/hedge-fund-manager-steven-cohen-settles-with-commodities-agency
- CLICK here for the rest of the story, including Cohen's management of the NY Mets - How did Steve Cohen of SAC Capital get Awarded a License for Metropolitan Park Casino Queens?
Governor Hochul Scraps the Ill Conceived LGA - Willets Point Air Train
Former Governor Cuomo's Air Train Seemed More About Catering to the Whims of the Billionaire Class, than in Streamlining Public Transit
March 15, 2023 / NYC Neighborhoods / News Analysis & Opinion / Gotham Buzz NYC.
In 2017 I attended a Community Board meeting in Astoria where our urban planners talked about new improvements coming to LaGuardia Airport. Since then a number of those plans have come to fruition. But one of them, what at the time was called the third phase, the Air Train to LGA, has not. Use the link to see the thinking nearly six years ago when the plans had been drafted and the construction was about to begin. I'm happy to say that we flagged and reported to you a number of the issues with the LGA Air Train early on, which we've included in the list below.
The photo at right shows the CTA [Chicago Transit Authority] subway that runs along the Kennedy Expressway from downtown Chicago to O'Hare Airport which vies with Atlanta for the title of the busiest airport in the U.S..
The Former Emperor [Governor Cuomo] had No Clothes [Sound Public Interest Rationale]
On Monday, Governor Hochul announced what was already well known and expected, which was that the Air Train shuttling between LaGuardia Airport and Flushing Meadows Corona Park, would not be built.
There were any number of good reasons why the LGA Air Train should not have been built, such as: 1) the costs of building the train would cost more than five times the original estimated cost of under $500 million to over $2.5 billion, 2) then, implicit in a number of alternatives, there was the idiocy of connecting the LGA Air Train, to the second most trafficked subway line [the #7] in NYC, which was already nearing peak capacity pre-pandemic, 3) the politically and billionaire preferred alternative destination, Willets Point on Flushing Bay, had just been cleaned up after decades of environmental pollution, and would again be threatened again, and to top it all off, 4) the politically and billionaire preferred Willets Point alternative required all of the people traveling to and from LaGuardia on public transit, to travel out to Flushing first, before circling back around to LaGuardia Airport. The billionaires who would have benefitted from this include billionaire real estate developer Stephen Ross and [now minority interest] Mets Club billionaire owners Saul B. Katz and Fred Wilpon. The new Mets baseball team owner, Steve Cohen, is also a billionaire.
CLICK here to read our report on Governor Hochul scraps the LGA to Flushing Meadows Corona Park Air Train.