A new meaning for "chump change"

 James O'Keefe thought he was a clever fellow, making that pimp video involving the group ACORN.

Turns out the joke was on him:

SAN DIEGO — James O'Keefe, the conservative activist whose hidden-camera stings have been aimed at liberal targets, has agreed to pay $100,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by a former employee of the group ACORN, according to documents filed Thursday in federal court here.

As part of the settlement, O'Keefe says he "regrets any pain" suffered by Juan Carlos Vera, who was interviewed by O'Keefe and an associate in ACORN's office in National City, near the U.S.-Mexico border, on Aug. 18, 2009.

The video, aired repeatedly on television, appears to show that Vera was willing to help O'Keefe smuggle underage girls into the U.S. to act as prostitutes. O'Keefe and his associate, Hannah Giles, had gone to the ACORN office without an invitation.

In the settlement, O'Keefe says that before the video was shown on TV or posted on the Web, he was unaware of Vera's assertion that he had called the police to report O'Keefe and Giles for proposing an illegal act.

Vera's lawsuit was filed by Eugene Iredale, one of San Diego's top criminal defense and civil rights attorneys. The lawsuit was filed on the assertion that O'Keefe broke a state law prohibiting the surreptitious recording of someone's voice and image.

O'Keefe's lawyer called the payment "a nuisance settlement."