ICP Asset Management, LLC, ICP Securities, LLC, Institutional Credit Partners, LLC, Thomas C. Priore, Lori A. Priore, and Bertrand H. Smyers

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission

Litigation Release No. 22024 / July 1, 2011

Securities and Exchange Commission v. ICP Asset Management, LLC, ICP Securities, LLC, Institutional Credit Partners, LLC, Thomas C. Priore, Lori A. Priore, and Bertrand H. Smyers, Civil Action No. 10-CV-4791 (S.D.N.Y.)

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced the filing of its amended complaint in its case against investment advisory firm ICP Asset Management, LLC (ICP) and its founder, owner and president, Thomas C. Priore. The additional claims seek to rescind Priore's transfer of assets to ensure that they would be within the reach of the Court in the event the Commission is successful in the pending case in Priore, ICP, and related entities.

The Commission filed fraud charges in June 2010 against Priore, ICP, its affiliated broker-dealer ICP Securities, LLC, and holding company Institutional Credit Partners, LLC. The Commission's civil suit, filed in the United States District Court for the District of New York, alleged that ICP and Priore repeatedly directed trading that caused certain clients to overpay for securities in order to make money for ICP and to protect other ICP clients from realizing losses. On June 29, 2010, the Court granted leave for the Commission to amend its pending complaint. The amended complaint adds allegations that, at a time when Priore knew that the Commission's staff expected to bring fraud charges against him and his companies, he transferred ownership of his two homes into trusts in an attempt to make them unavailable to satisfy any judgment entered by the Court against Priore.

The Commission's amended complaint adds new claims of fraudulent conveyance under New York law and federal law against Priore (as transferor and as transferee in his capacity as trustee of certain trusts), his wife Lori A. Priore (as transferor and as transferee in her capacity as trustee of certain trusts), and Bertrand H. Smyers (as transferee in his capacity as trustee of certain trusts). The amended complaint also adds relief claims against Priore, Lori Priore, and Smyers in their role as trustees of the trusts. The amended complaint seeks a final judgment voiding the transfers of the two properties in question, and requiring the return of any ill-gotten gains from the transfers.