NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. securities regulators say they want to bring new charges contending that a portfolio manager at a financial services firm improperly transferred three homes shortly after learning he was to be accused of fraud.
Thomas Priore, founder of ICP Asset Management LLC, transferred ownership of his homes in Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, and Chappaqua, New York only "days" after his lawyer learned the government planned to sue him for securities fraud, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said in court papers.
The SEC brought a civil case against ICP and Priore in June 2010, accusing them of fraudulently managing four multi-billion dollar collateralized debt obligations, known as Triaxx, for their own benefit.
The lawsuit said ICP and Priore caused investors to lose millions of dollars when mortgage markets collapsed in 2007.
The home transfers occurred in March 2010, the SEC said. It said the properties were moved into three trusts for token sums.
In Thursday's court papers, the SEC said it was asking permission from U.S. District Court Judge Lewis Kaplan to file the new charges.
The agency is seeking to add claims alleging the homes were fraudulently conveyed. It also wants to add Priore's wife, Lori, and his friend Bertrand Smyers as defendants, saying they control the trusts along with Thomas Priore.
A lawyer for the defendants did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Tim Dobbyn)
