On February 15, 2013, the Commission settled cease-and-desist proceedings (the “Order”) that were instituted on May 30, 2012 against Oxford Investment Partners, LLC (“Oxford”), a registered investment adviser, and its owner and principle, Walter J. Clarke (“Clarke”) (collectively, the “Respondents”). In the Order, the Commission found that, in late 2007, Clarke faced severe financial problems and decided to obtain money to address his difficulties by selling an ownership interest in Oxford at a fraudulently inflated price, exploiting an Oxford client. The Respondents also repeatedly breached their fiduciary duty when they failed to disclose their conflict of interest in their investment recommendations to Oxford’s clients. The Commission ordered, and the Respondents have paid a total of $274,295.00 in disgorgement, prejudgment interest, and civil money penalties to the Commission. The Commission ordered that such penalties, along with the disgorgement and prejudgment interest, will be held pending a decision whether the Commission, in its discretion, will seek to distribute the funds, pursuant to Section 308(a) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, as amended or transfer the funds to the U.S. Treasury.  See the Commission’s Order: Release No. IA-3553.

For more information, please contact the Commission:

Office of Distributions
Email: ENFOfficeofDistributions@sec.gov