U.S. appeals court upholds insider trading conviction of SAC's Martoma

(Reuters) - A divided federal appeals court on Wednesday upheld the insider trading conviction of Mathew Martoma, a former SAC Capital Advisors LP portfolio manager, rejecting his claims that there was inadequate evidence of guilt and that the jury instructions were defective.

Martoma, who worked at SAC's CR Intrinsic Investors unit, was convicted of receiving confidential tips from a Michigan doctor in 2008 about an Alzheimer's drug trial, and that he received $275 million of illegal gains from trades.

Wednesday's 2-1 decision followed rearguments in May, after a U.S. Supreme Court decision the previous December made it easier to prosecute insider trading cases.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York)