Perelman Company Reaches Another Settlement

For the second time in as many weeks, the billionaire financier Ronald O. Perelman has found himself in the government’s crosshairs.

On Tuesday, MacAndrews & Forbes, Mr. Perelman’s holding company, said it had agreed to pay a $720,000 civil penalty to resolve accusations that the company violated reporting requirements related to its acquisition of stock in the Scientific Games Corporation.

The antitrust division of the Justice Department â€" at the recommendation of the Federal Trade Commission â€" filed a civil action on Thursday in Federal District Court in Washington against MacAndrews & Forbes alongside the proposed settlement, which must be approved by a judge.

A week ago, Revlon, the cosmetics business controlled by Mr. Perelman, agreed to pay $850,000 to the Securities and Exchange Commission to settle accusations that it had deceived shareholders and its independent directors in connection with a failed 2009 attempt to take the company private.

In the case filed on Thusday, the Justice Department accused MacAndrews & Forbes of violating the antitrust laws related to notification requirements before acquiring large stock positions.

Mr. Perelman, who has an estimated net worth of about $12 billion, has been building a position in Scientific Games, a New York-based provider of lottery and gaming services, since 2003. Today, he owns about 38 percent of the company, which has a $930 million market value.

In June 2012, MacAndrews & Forbes acquired additional voting shares in the company and crossed the threshold that would have acquired it to report its holdings under a federal law called the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act. The law provides the F.T.C. and the Justice Department â€" the two arms of government that oversee antitrust laws â€" with information about large mergers and acquisitions before they take place.

Christine Taylor, a spokeswoman for MacAndrews & Forbes, said that the failure to report was a technical and inadvertent mistake that was self-repo! rted, a fact acknowledged by the F.T.C. MacAndrews & Forbes was represented in the case by Robert B. Barnett of Williams & Connolly.

“It was promptly corrected and did not involve any financial benefit,” Ms. Taylor said. MacAndrews & Forbes, she added, “has implemented additional safeguards to ensure that a mistake of this kind does not occur in the future.”