Legendary Partners, LLC and Scott L. Snyder
U.S. SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Litigation Release No. 25781 / July 18, 2023
Securities and Exchange Commission v. Legendary Partners, LLC and Scott L. Snyder, No. 23-cv-01282 (C.D. Cal. filed July 18, 2023)
SEC Charges Legendary Partners, LLC and its President with Reality TV Offering Fraud Targeting Mostly Elderly Investors
SEC Seeks Court Approval for Settlement that Includes Antifraud Injunctions, Officer and Director Bar, and Monetary Relief
The SEC today charged California-based Legendary Partners, LLC and its founder and President Scott L. Snyder with conducting a nationwide offering fraud that raised approximately $391,000 from April 2018 to December 2021.
According to the Complaint, the offering was pitched as an opportunity to invest in a start-up company that purportedly would produce a reality-television series about the refurbishment of damaged exotic and luxury vehicles. According to the Complaint, Legendary Partners and Snyder solicited investors using “cold callers”—including Snyder who nearly always concealed his true identity when interacting with investors by using the alias “Bill Miller”—located in Orange County, California. The SEC alleged that the cold callers would contact the mostly elderly investors by phone and routinely provide baseless and misleading profit projections designed to entice investors.
The SEC alleged that Snyder also intentionally misdirected money to Legendary Partners from several other investors who intended to invest in different and unrelated offerings. According to the Complaint, instead of investing the money as promised, Snyder instead tricked these investors into depositing their money into accounts controlled by Legendary Partners. The SEC alleges that this money was then misappropriated by Legendary Partners and Snyder.
The SEC also filed and sought court approval for a settlement. Legendary Partners and Snyder consented to the entry of a final judgment that would permanently enjoin them from violating the antifraud provisions of Section 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5 thereunder, prohibit Snyder from participating in the issuance, purchase, offer, or sale of any security (provided, however, that such injunction would not prevent him from purchasing or selling securities for his own personal account), and impose an officer-and-director bar against Snyder.
The final judgment, if approved by the court, would hold Snyder liable for payment of $42,636 in disgorgement plus $9,956 in prejudgment interest, as well as a $50,000 civil penalty. In addition, the final judgment, if approved by the court, would order Legendary Partners to pay $184,706 in disgorgement plus $43,130 in prejudgment interest, as well as a $184,706 civil penalty.
The SEC’s Retail Strategy Task Force and Office of Investor Education and Advocacy (OIEA) encourage investors to check the background of anyone selling or offering them an investment using the free and simple search tool on Investor.gov. Investors can also use the SEC’s SALI database to find information about certain people who have had judgments or orders issued against them in SEC court actions or administrative proceedings.
The SEC’s investigation was conducted by Carolyn Kurr, Michael Grimes, and Shipra Wells, with the assistance of trial attorney Dean Conway, and was supervised by C. Joshua Felker and Melissa Hodgman. The SEC appreciates the assistance of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California.