SAC Capital’s Steven Cohen, faced with a Securities and Exchange Commission deadline to liquidate his funds as part of an insider-trading settlement, has turned to an affiliate of his firm’s auditor to take the remaining investments off his hands, MarketWatch reports.

The move appears to fly in the face of SEC auditor independence rules that prohibit business relationships between auditors and their clients — rules that apply not only to the organisation under audit, but the audit client’s affiliates as well.