SEC censures Indiana-based RIA Mohlman Asset Management

The Securities and Exchange Commission has censured Mohlman Asset Management and barred its principal, Louis Mohlman Jr., from working for a broker-dealer or registered investment adviser for two years. The firm is based in Fort Wayne, Ind., and Mr. Mohlman is a resident of Leo, Ind. The commission's complaint alleges, among other things, that in 2012 and 2013, Mr. Mohlman, directly and through Mohlman Asset Management, engaged Mohlman Asset Management Fund II in a conflicted transaction with one of the management firm's advisory clients and in another conflicted transaction used the fund's assets to make an unsecured personal loan to other individuals. The SEC said that the fund and Mr. Mohlman made material misstatements and omissions concerning those transactions to the fund's investors. The complaint also alleged that in 2014, Mr. Mohlman failed to disclose on a timely basis a financial conflict of interest created by an agreement to receive a forgivable loan from LPL Financial in exchange for clients using LPL Financial for custodial and brokerage services before clients switched to LPL. In addition, the complaint alleged that Mohlman Asset Management and Mr. Mohlman filed materially inaccurate Forms ADV that did not disclose the financial conflict of interest created by the forgivable LPL loan. (More: SEC charges two Boston-area former Morgan Stanley reps with fraud)