The Rise And Fall Of Steve Cohen

This morning the Justice Department announced that it had come to an agreement with hedge fund SAC Capital.

The fund had been charged with insider trading, and in order to settle those charges, it admitted guilt, agreed to pay a $1.8 billion fine, and return all money belonging to outside investors.

In short, the storied hedge fund would shut down, leaving CEO Steve Cohen - known for being one of the most successful traders on Wall Street - with a $9 billion family office... and an ongoing SEC investigation into his own trading.

Cohen began his Stamford-headquartered hedge fund in 1992 with only $25 million, and came into prominence for his grand slam returns. In its better days, SAC had $14 billion assets under management and employees around 900 people globally.

Then things turned very sour, as accusations of insider trading started to plague the firm and its subsidiary hedge funds.

Most notably, last year Cohen was fingered in several media reports as "Portfolio Manager A" in the insider trading case against former CR Intrinsic (a subsidiary of SAC) portfolio manager Mathew Martoma.

Since then, Federal authorities haven't given an inch, and in a press conference about SAC's settlement today, U.S. Attorney Preet Bahrara hinted that prosecutors and regulators were far from done with Cohen and his firm.

"No institutions should rest easy in the belief that it is too big to jail," said Bahrara. "Today one of the world's most powerful hedge funds... agreed to shut down... That is the just... outcome."

Here's how it all fell down.