The National Futures Association issued a Hearing Panel decision ordering Delaware-based Alggoritmica Portfolio Management LLC, an NFA Member commodity pool operator and commodity trading advisor, to withdraw from and not reapply for NFA membership. The decision also requires the firm’s sole principal and associated person, Lino David Flores Hidalgo, to withdraw from and not reapply for NFA membership for three years, pay a USD 75,000 fine, and comply with several undertakings if he seeks NFA membership or principal status in the future. The action followed a Complaint issued by NFA’s Business Conduct Committee and a settlement offer submitted by Alggoritmica and Hidalgo, in which they neither admitted nor denied the allegations. The Complaint alleged, among other violations, that Alggoritmica failed to ensure its pool, Alggoritmica Volatility Portfolio Fund LP, qualified for a claimed exemption under Commodity Futures Trading Commission Regulation 4.7 and used a misleading disclosure document, and that it permitted a prohibited loan or advance of pool assets to Alggoritmica and Hidalgo. It also alleged failures to act in the best interest of the pool and its participants and to cooperate promptly and fully with NFA, and the Hearing Panel found that Hidalgo committed the violations alleged against him.