Tiger Asia Management LLC, the New York-based hedge fund run by Bill Hwang, admitted illegally using inside information to trade Chinese bank stocks and agreed to criminal and civil settlements of more than $60 million.

Hwang entered the guilty plea for Tiger Asia yesterday in federal court in Newark, New Jersey, admitting it used material nonpublic information by selling short shares of Bank of China Ltd. and China Construction Bank Corp. Tiger Asia agreed to forfeit $16.3m to resolve the criminal case.