On September 9, 2020, the United States District Court for the District of Colorado entered a final judgment by consent against investment adviser Steven D. Rodemer for fraud in connection with his misappropriation of hundreds of thousands of dollars from an elderly client.

The SEC's complaint, filed on September 3, 2020, alleged that Rodemer served as investment adviser to an elderly, widowed client and handled all of her finances, including advising her on her overall investment strategy and placing orders to execute this strategy. As alleged, Rodemer used his power of attorney over the client's assets to write checks to himself, to his bank, and to cover various expenses associated with his vacation home. In addition, Rodemer allegedly used the client's brokerage account-issued debit/credit card to cover personal expenses and make ATM withdrawals, and later used the client's bank account to pay his personal credit card bills online. According to the complaint, none of these transactions were authorized by the client, and in total, Rodemer misappropriated $451,889 of her funds.

The final judgment enjoins Rodemer from violating the antifraud provisions of Sections 206(1) and 206(2) of the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 and orders him to pay a civil penalty in the amount of $385,536.

The SEC's investigation was conducted by Heather L. Freiburger and was supervised by Mary S. Brady and Jason J. Burt of the SEC's Denver office. The litigation has been led by Polly A. Atkinson and Terry R. Miller and supervised by Gregory A. Kasper.