Ex-SAC fund manager Martoma gets more time to prepare defense

NEW YORK, March 5 (Reuters) - A former portfolio manager at hedge fund SAC Capital Management, Mathew Martoma, on Tuesday won more time to prepare for his insider-trading trial as his lawyers sort through millions of pages of documents.

U.S. District Judge Paul Gardephe granted defense lawyers' request for another three months to examine what they called the "incredibly voluminous" production of emails and other documents.

Gardephe, of U.S. District Court in Manhattan, scheduled another hearing for June 5, when he said he will likely set a trial date.

Martoma was indicted in December on counts of conspiracy and securities fraud related to trades in Elan Corp Plc and Wyeth, which now is part of Pfizer Inc.

Authorities contend the trades were made on illegal tips that Martoma received from a doctor. Those trades, prosecutors say in the indictment, enabled CR Intrinsic Investors, one of SAC Capital's funds, to avoid losses and earn profits of $276 million in mid-2008.

SAC Capital's founder, Steven A. Cohen, is referred to as "Hedge Fund Owner" by the government in a criminal complaint filed in the case in November, according to sources familiar with the case. Cohen has not been charged with wrongdoing.

At Tuesday's hearing, Charles Stillman, a lawyer for Martoma, said he was not seeking to unduly delay the case. But as the government has called it the biggest insider trading case ever, he said his mission is to move forward as "responsibly as possible."

Stillman said the defense had received 4 million documents, including 17,000 just in the last few days. He held up a six-inch thick binder that he said contained a single day's worth of e-mails from Martoma.

Prosecutor Arlo Devlin-Brown said that by Jan. 15 the government had produced the bulk of the documents in its possession that are tied to the case.

The case is USA v. Martoma, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, 12-cr-00973.