Let's role-play for a second. You're a well-known hedge fund manager who's had a really, really shitty 18 months. Your investors hate you, because of petty little stuff like 1) you loaned yourself $113 million from a gated fund to pay personal taxes 2) you tied up a good chunk of their money in a walkie-talkie passion project 3) you will only let them leave if they can find a buyer for said passion project on the black market and you both know that's not happening any time soon. It appears as though you're somewhat past due on paying property taxes. The deal you've bet pretty much everything on may be fucked. Your singing and dancing pig, the one person you thought you could count on and who, even if you lost everything, would still make you feel like a rich man, has started not just considering her options but unapologetically flaunting them in your face. (You didn't need Wilbur to have her date-- a potential new benefactor and the third this week-- pick her up just as you were getting home to see them leave and you really could have dealt without hearing him ask "Who's that guy?" and hearing her cruelly laugh and answer, "Oh him? He's nobody"?). So when the SEC, which has been investigating what you've been up to, offers you a deal to settle by agreeing to be banned from the securities industry, what do you do? Do you say, "You know what, that actually sounds great," because honestly, what are you holding onto anymore? This way, you can start fresh. Give the double-finger fuck you to everyone and take off? Maybe that's what you do if you're you but in this scenario you're Phil Falcone and you're not going anywhere. Throw in the towel, his ass.

Prominent hedge-fund manager Philip Falcone has rejected a Securities and Exchange Commission settlement offer that would have banned him from the securities industry and essentially ended his career, people familiar with the matter said. The move by SEC officials to reach a settlement came before an affiliate of Mr. Falcone's firm, Harbinger Capital Partners LLC, disclosed in a securities filing Dec. 9 that he and two senior executives have been warned by the SEC they could face civil-fraud charges. The SEC's push for a multiyear ban on the 49-year-old billionaire from the hedge-fund industry is a sign of how seriously agency officials view alleged misconduct by Mr. Falcone that is now being investigated, people familiar with the matter said.

An SEC multiyear ban likely would make it impossible for Mr. Falcone to continue running his hedge fund as a hands-on operation. Such a ban likely would include barring him from managing assets of the investors in his funds, people familiar with the matter said. If Mr. Falcone agreed to an exile, it also would threaten his bet on LightSquared Inc., a new wireless-communications firm...An SEC spokesman declined to comment. A Harbinger spokesman said "any comment on settlement talks would be inappropriate."

But, off the record, "kiss my ass and suck my dick, everyone" is about where he's at right now.

[WSJ]