On August 10, 2022, the Commission issued the Orders instituting and simultaneously settling cease-and-desist proceedings against the Respondents. The Commission found that from January 2011 to October 2020, Robertson engaged in a cherry-picking scheme whereby he unfairly allocated purchases of securities between his personal and family accounts and his other IFP clients’ accounts. Robertson disproportionately allocated profitable trades to his personal and family accounts and disproportionately allocated unprofitable trades to his other advisory clients. IFP failed to supervise Robertson, failed to implement policies and procedures reasonably designed to prevent violations of the Advisers Act and its rules by its supervised persons, and made false and misleading statements in its Forms ADV concerning supposed safeguards it had to prevent investment adviser representatives from placing their own interests ahead of those of its advisory clients. In their respective Orders, the Commission ordered Robertson to pay disgorgement of $592,437.00, prejudgment interest of $28,173.12, and a civil money penalty of $300,000; and IFP to pay a civil money penalty of $400,000, for a collective total of $1,320,610.12 to the Commission. In each of the Orders, the Commission also created a Fair Fund, pursuant to Section 308(a) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, so the penalties collected, along with the disgorgement and prejudgment interest collected, can be distributed to harmed investors, and further ordered that it may be combined with the monies paid in a parallel proceeding arising out of the same facts that are the basis for the violations in this matter, and that it is expected for the monies collected pursuant to the Orders to be distributed together. The Respondents have paid in full. In accordance with the Orders, the $1,320,610.12 paid by the Respondents has been combined (collectively, the “Fair Fund”) and deposited in a Commission-designated account at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, and any accrued interest will be added to the Fair Fund.

As calculated using the methodology detailed in the Plan of Allocation (attached as Exhibit A), investors will be compensated for their losses between January 2011 through October 2020 (the “Relevant Period”) due to the misconduct of Robertson in allocating trades to client accounts and IFP Advisors’ failure to supervise Robertson and other violations. In the view of the Commission staff, this methodology constitutes a fair and reasonable allocation of the Fair Fund.