The settlement approved by Chancellor William Chandler III calls for Gupta to reimburse $9 million to the company. Gupta also will step down as chief executive officer and receive a $10 million severance package.

The settlement includes a host of corporate governance changes, including the resignations of three directors and the establishment of an internal watchdog to prevent further abuses.

Gupta remains a 40 percent shareholder in Omaha, Neb.-based InfoGroup, which is the subject of a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation. But the settlement prohibits him from trying to wage a proxy contest before 2010 or trying to undo the corporate reforms being put in place before 2013.

A special litigation committee formed in response to the lawsuit confirmed many of the findings by the plaintiffs, who alleged that the company had paid Gupta millions of dollars for personal expenses including jet travel, homes, a yacht, and a collection of luxury automobiles that, as the judge wrote last year, "would leave James Bond green with envy."