ICP Asset Management, a New York-based investment advisory firm, and its founder and president Thomas Priore have agreed to settle the Securities and Exchange Commission’s charges that they defrauded several collateralized debt obligations which they managed.

ICP and Priore, along with related entities, will pay over $23 million to settle the charges, which state that they caused the CDOs to overpay for securities and lose millions of dollars. They also allegedly obtained fees and undisclosed profits they were not entitled to, at the expense of the CDOs and their investors.

“The settlement with Priore and ICP sends a clear message that investment advisors must always act in the best interests of their advisory clients, even if those clients are sophisticated investors,” said George Canellos, deputy director of the SEC’s enforcement division.

The charges were filed in federal court in Manhattan in June 2010, and the court approved the settlement on September 6, 2012.

The final judgment orders Priore to pay disgorgement of $797,337, prejudgment interest of $215,045, and a penalty of $487,618. ICP and its holding company Institutional Credit Partners are ordered to pay disgorgement of $13,916,005 and prejudgment interest of $3,709,028. ICP is also ordered to pay a penalty of $650,000. An affiliated broker-dealer, ICP Securities, is ordered to pay disgorgement of $1,637,581, prejudgment interest of $301,893, and a penalty of $1,939,474.

Priore and the ICP parties neither admitted nor denied the SEC’s allegations.