Ex-Hedge Fund Chief Settles Short-Sale Charges for $1.45 Million

A former hedge fund manager agreed to pay $1.45 million after being charged by securities regulators with fraud and insider trading in a four-year-old private placement.

The joint action taken by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the NASD against Hilary Shane is the first to emerge from a yearlong investigation into stock manipulation in the $14 billion market for private investments in public equity, known by the Wall Street acronym PIPEs.

In the settlement with regulators, Shane, a 37-year-old former hedge fund manager with First New York Securities, agreed to a lifetime ban from working in the brokerage business and a one-year suspension from serving as an investment adviser or hedge fund manager. ...