[JURIST] New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer [official profile; JURIST news archive] Wednesday dropped criminal charges against Theodore Sihpol, a former Bank of America broker accused of aiding illegal trades by a hedge fund, after Sihpol settled related charges with Securites and Exchange Commission [official website]. Under the settlement with the SEC [PDF text], Sihpol agreed to a $200,000 fine and a five-year ban from the securities industry, while not admitting or denying wrongdoing. Spitzer dropped four remaining charges against Sihpol, after Sihpol had been acquitted of 29 other charges [JURIST report] in June. At the time, Spitzer said he planned to retry [JURIST report] the four other charges on which the jury deadlocked in the original trial. Sihpol was the first defendant tried by Spitzer from a series of charges against the mutual fund industry, which many predicted would cause others to seek a trial rather than settling with Spitzer. The SEC has a news release on the settlement. Reuters has more.