At a conference on Alzheimer’s disease in 2008, attendees were anticipating the results of a clinical trial into a promising new treatment drug, bapinuzemab, often shortened to “bapi.” The results would have implications for humanity as a whole, but were of particular interest to one billionaire: Steven A. Cohen, whose hedge fund, SAC Investments, had invested heavily in the drug. The clinical trial results were presented by respected neurologist Dr. Sidney Gilman of the University of Michigan. Though some feared the drug’s failure to live up to its promise would mean a financial loss for SAC, Cohen had already sold all of his stock in the affected companies in what investors call a “short” (81) sale—a sale banking on the stock decreasing in value—making enormous profit. Federal regulators came to regard Cohen’s nick-of-time sale not as the result of luck or skill, but as evidence of a crime. One of Cohen’s employees, Matthew Martoma, had secret information revealing the trial results early. Gilman was Martoma’s confidential source.

Gilman became the head of neurology at the University of Michigan while still a young man. After his first marriage ended, he lost one son to suicide and another to estrangement.