A judge has approved a settlement between the hedge fund SAC Capital Advisors and securities regulators that allows the firm to pay a $602 million fine to resolve a civil insider trading case without admitting any guilt, but he conditioned his ruling on a pending ruling from the Federal Appeals Court, the New York Times DealBook blog reported yesterday. In an opinion released yesterday, U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero said that he had serious concerns with the "neither admit nor deny" language contained in the agreement but said that he would await guidance from a case involving Citigroup. The pending appellate case, heard by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, involves the review of a ruling by Judge Jed S. Rakoff, who rejected a $285 million settlement in a fraud case brought against Citigroup by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The agreement let the bank avoid acknowledging that it had done anything wrong.
