A feather in the cap of SEC chief Mary Jo White in her continued push to get wrongdoers to admit, well, wrongdoing. It was just in May that Falcone expected to merely pay an $18m fine to the SEC for misusing customer funds to pay his taxes (and other charges - see below), while being barred from acting as an investment adviser for two years but staying on as chief executive and chairman of Harbinger. But that deal was rejected in July, and on Monday the SEC laid down the harsher smack: Washington D.C., Aug. 19, 2013 - The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that New York-based hedge fund adviser Philip A. Falcone and his advisory firm Harbinger Capital Partners have agreed to a settlement in which they must pay more than $18 million and admit wrongdoing. Falcone also agreed to be barred from the securities industry for at least five years. The SEC filed enforcement actions in June 2012 alleging that Falcone improperly used $113 million in fund assets to pay his personal taxes, secretly favored certain customer redemption requests at the expense of other investors, and conducted an improper "short squeeze" in bonds issued by a Canadian manufacturing company. In the settlement papers filed in court today, Falcone and Harbinger admit to multiple acts of misconduct that harmed investors and interfered with the normal functioning of the securities markets.... This entry was posted by FT Alphaville on Monday August 19th, 2013 21:58.