Briefly

Veras Investment Partners, a Texas hedge fund accused of breaking mutual fund trading rules, agreed Thursday to pay $38.2 million in a settlement with the New York Atty. Gen. Eliot Spitzer and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Veras, based in Sugar Land, Texas, will pay $36.2 million in penalties, restitution and interest to the SEC and $500,000 to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Veras’ top two officials, James McBride and Kevin Larson, were fined $750,000 each, Spitzer said in a statement Thursday.

Veras, which once had about $1 billion in assets, improperly traded mutual funds after the 4 p.m. close of trading in New York in 2002 and 2003, Spitzer said.

Authorities including Spitzer and the SEC have levied more than $3.7 billion in penalties against mutual fund and hedge fund firms and their executives since 2003. Millennium Partners agreed this month to a $180-million settlement of fund trading allegations.