Billionaire hedge-fund manager Philip Falcone’s $18 million settlement with U.S. regulators that includes a five-year ban from the securities industry and an admission of wrongdoing was accepted by a federal judge, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. U.S. District Judge Paul A. Crotty said yesterday in a written order that the agreement reached last month with Falcone and Harbinger Capital Partners LLC is “appropriate and proportionate to the defendants’ admitted wrongful conduct.” The SEC accused Falcone, who became a billionaire by betting against the U.S. housing market in 2006, of improperly borrowing money from his fund to pay his personal taxes and said that he gave preferential treatment to some of his investors in returning their money.
