An affiliated fund of Steven A. Cohen's SAC Capital Advisors shut down last week as the $14 billion hedge fund begins to shrink in the wake of a criminal indictment filed against it in July, according to two people familiar with the unit's closure.

Parameter Capital Management, which had managed money for SAC since 2010, traded mainly financial stocks. The team was run by portfolio managers Glenn Shapiro and Anil Stevens.

The sources said the decision to close Parameter had been in the planning before federal prosecutors charged Cohen's firm in a five-count indictment with fostering a culture where employees flouted the law and were encouraged to tap their personal networks for inside information about publicly traded companies.

Meanwhile, Tom Conheeney, SAC Capital's president, sent an e-mail to the firm's employees on Saturday, in response to several news reports about SAC's future. In the e-mail, according to one of the sources, Conheeney said the firm will have as much capital to invest at year's end as it had in 2009.