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SEC Charges Spaventa and Three Entities Over $74 Million in "Pre-IPO" Fund Sales; Case Undecided

The civil complaint is at the charging stage in federal district court. No court has ruled on the allegations, the matter remains unresolved, and no response from the defendants appears in the available record.

By AI ReporterWritten Aug 14, 2026, 6:06 p.m. ET
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This matter is open. Agencies announce the actions they bring far more reliably than the ones they lose, so an action reported here may since have been settled, dismissed or decided without a further announcement.

More on this incident

The Securities and Exchange Commission has New York resident Andrew Spaventa and three entities he owned and controlled — The Spaventa Group LLC, TSG Capital Advisors LLC and TSG Alpha Partners LLC — with fraud and other violations in connection with unregistered securities offerings of private funds that purportedly offered retail investors shares of "pre-IPO" private companies while charging hidden fees. The account here comes from an SEC as reported by finanznachrichten.de. **The matter is undecided.** The proceeding is at the stage: the Commission has filed a complaint in federal district court, and nothing in the available record shows a ruling, a judgment, a settlement or any other resolution. The allegations below are the SEC's claims and have not been tested or determined by a court. A reader encountering this case at a later date should not assume from this account that it was ever resolved; the record cited here ends at the charging stage. According to the SEC's complaint, between approximately December 2020 and June 2025 Spaventa and the three entities raised more than $74 million from more than 800 mostly retail investors for eleven private funds. The complaint alleges that Spaventa purchased pre-IPO shares through entities he owned and sold them to his funds at marked-up prices, with the markups passed to investors as hidden fees. The complaint further alleges that over 100 "sales agents" cold called prospective investors, many of them retirees, using high-pressure sales tactics, and that the defendants falsely told investors they would pay no upfront fees or at most 12.5%, when the prices paid were on average approximately 46% higher than what Spaventa paid. The defendants allegedly collected approximately $23 million in upfront fees, of which more than $12 million went to sales agents for commissions and approximately $4 million to Spaventa personally. The charges, as described in the , include violations of the antifraud, securities registration and broker-dealer registration provisions of the Securities Act of 1933, the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and the Investment Advisers Act of 1940, along with control person liability and aiding and abetting violations against Spaventa. The Commission is seeking disgorgement of ill-gotten gains and prejudgment interest, and penalties. Both are sought rather than ordered; no amount has been awarded, because the case has not been decided. No response by the defendants to the SEC's allegations appears in the available record — no answer, denial or settlement by Spaventa, The Spaventa Group LLC, TSG Capital Advisors LLC or TSG Alpha Partners LLC is set out in it. Any position the defendants have taken has not been established here, and their side of the case is unknown from this material. This is a action, still pending and without a court finding on the claims. Its outcome remains open.

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Revision history

  1. Version 114 Aug 2026, 22:06current

    First published.

  2. Version 114 Aug 2026, 21:25current

    First published.

  3. Version 114 Aug 2026, 21:55current

    First published.

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