U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff has chastised the SEC, again, for not telling him it had filed an emergency request with an appeals court to put the Citigroup case on hold, after making the same request to him. The judge on Tuesday issued a ruling opposing any delay in the case, but he was beaten to the punch; 78 seconds earlier, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had granted the SEC the temporary halt it sought. Judge Rakoff, who rejected the SEC's $285 million settlement with Citigroup Inc, says the regulator kept him out of the loop on its efforts to salvage the case. He also accused the SEC and Citigroup of potentially "misleading" the court, saying they called him around 3:30 p.m. EST (2030 GMT) on Tuesday to discuss the case, without mentioning the filing with the 2nd Circuit.  The rulings by both the 2nd Circuit Court and Rakoff came less than an hour later.  The judge said he spent his Christmas holiday reviewing the positions, that were now negated. To prevent a recurrence, Rakoff ordered the SEC and Citigroup to "promptly notify" him of any filings they make in the appeals court. Rakoff rejected the settlements between the regulator and bank because he said SEC's failure to require Citigroup to admit or deny its charges left him no way to know whether the settlement was fair. Rakoff also called the payout "pocket change" for the third-largest U.S. bank. An SEC spokeswoman had no immediate comment. A Citigroup spokeswoman declined to comment.  [Reuters - 12/29/11]