Bobby Soper, the Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority chief executive whose abrupt resignation in February came amid a review of financial irregularities at the authority’s Pennsylvania casino, has agreed to a settlement that requires the authority to keep paying him through next February, according to a regulatory filing.

At the time of his resignation, Soper, 45, of East Lyme, said he was leaving to take on “a new challenge” that confidentiality requirements prevented him from discussing.

In the settlement agreement filed this week with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Soper acknowledges that he is bound by a non-compete clause that prohibits him from working for an MTGA competitor in a “restricted area” that includes the six New England states and New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania for a period of one year.

The ban also applies to areas within 125 miles of any site in the United States or Canada where MTGA holds a gaming license or has a pending application for one.

In addition to Mohegan Sun, its flagship casino in Uncasville, MTGA owns Mohegan Sun Pocono in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., manages Resorts Casino Hotel in Atlantic City, N.J., and Paragon Casino Resort in Marksville, La., and will manage ilani Casino Resort in La Center, Wash., which opens next week.

The parties entered into the agreement “to resolve any and all issues in dispute between them without admitting any wrongdoing,” the agreement says.

Under the deal, MTGA will continue to pay Soper weekly installments of the annual base salary he was earning at the time of his resignation. In the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, 2016, Soper was paid a base salary of $1,028,847, according to MTGA's latest annual report. 

MTGA also will pay Soper a $15,000 relocation fee and $100,480 in accrued and unused paid time off, according to the agreement.

Soper’s Feb. 14 resignation stunned many in the gaming industry. A member of the Mohegan Tribe, Soper succeeded Mitchell Etess as MTGA’s president and chief executive officer in 2015. Soper had been president and CEO of Mohegan Sun since 2012 and before that headed Mohegan Sun Pocono for seven years. He began his gaming career at Mohegan Sun in 2001, serving as chief legal officer and senior vice president of administration.

Etess, who had retired, was named to succeed Soper on an interim basis.

“I have been fortunate to have had the opportunity to lead the operations and development efforts of the Mohegan organization in various capacities the past two decades,” Soper said Wednesday in an email. “Not many people have had the opportunity that the Mohegan Tribe has given me to help grow an organization and assist in elevating it on the international stage, and more importantly, to do so while being surrounded with the best team in the industry. For that, I will never forget and always be appreciative.”

Soper played a key role in the authority’s successful pursuit of a South Korean gaming license for Project Inspire, a $1.6 billion gaming resort proposed for Incheon International Airport near Seoul. Plans call for additional phases of the project to be developed over 20 years, requiring a total investment of $5 billion.

In 2016, a former Mohegan Sun Pocono vice president and two other people were accused of stealing more than $400,000 from the Pennsylvania casino in a money-laundering scheme that resulted in indictments and guilty pleas and prompted the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board’s Office of Enforcement Counsel to launch an investigation of “operational control deficiencies.” The probe was to include a review of the casino’s system of tracking and reporting of “certain customer incentives such as free slots play,” according to an earlier SEC filing.

Soper and tribal officials have said Soper had nothing to do with the Mohegan Sun Pocono money-laundering scheme. On Wednesday, the tribe sought to drive home the point.

“While it is true that we have entered into a separation agreement with our former CEO Bobby Soper, and filed the required notifications, we wish to be clear that he has in no way been implicated in the theft at our Pennsylvania property,” Chuck Bunnell, the tribe’s chief of staff, said in a statement.

In early February, the Office of Enforcement Counsel informed MTGA that its investigation was nearly complete and that it expected Mohegan Sun Pocono to face disciplinary action, including a fine.

The authority, in conducting its own review, informed the Office of Enforcement Counsel that it had terminated Mohegan Sun Pocono’s relationship with ReferLocal, a marketing company in which Soper had a 5 percent interest that he had failed to disclose to MTGA’s management board.

A spokesman for the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board said Wednesday the Office of Enforcement Counsel has yet to announce any results of its investigation.

b.hallenbeck@theday.com