Steven Rattner is near a $6 million settlement with the SEC in a pay-to-play probe involving investments of the New York State Common Retirement Fund, Albany, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Mr. Rattner is the co-founder of Quadrangle Group, a private equity firm he has since left. The proposed agreement also includes a two-year ban from the financial industry, according to the person, who declined to be identified because the talks are private.
SEC spokesman John Nester declined to comment.
In June, the SEC proposed a three-year ban, while Mr. Rattner suggested one to two years, a person with knowledge of those negotiations said at the time.
Mr. Rattner allegedly paid $1.1 million in finder fees to Henry “Hank” Morris, the former chief political consultant to Alan Hevesi, ex-New York state comptroller, according to New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo. In exchange, Quadrangle received an investment from the fund, said Mr. Cuomo, who settled his probe of the firm earlier this year for $7 million.
“We wholly disavow the conduct engaged in by Steve Rattner,” Manhattan-based Quadrangle said of its settlement at the time, adding that it didn’t admit or deny any wrongdoing.
A settlement between Mr. Rattner and the SEC would come a week after Mr. Hevesi pleaded guilty to participating in the so-called pay-to-play scandal at the pension fund, which he once ran. Mr. Hevesi was the highest-ranking official convicted in a three-year investigation by Mr. Cuomo.
Mr. Hevesi, who resigned in 2006, admitted on Oct. 7 to a second-degree charge of receiving reward for official misconduct in New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan. He agreed to cooperate in Mr. Cuomo’s probe and may avoid prison time.
Mr. Rattner served until July in the Obama administration’s Treasury Department as chief adviser on auto industry restructuring.
