David J. Feingold; Joseph B. Baldassarra; Steven S. Baldassarra; Broad Street Global Management, LLC; Broad Street Inc.
U.S. SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Litigation Release No. 26289 / April 21, 2025
Securities and Exchange Commission v. David J. Feingold, Joseph B. Baldassarra, Steven S. Baldassarra, Broad Street Global Management, LLC, Broad Street Inc. et. al., Case No. 1:25-cv-20436-DPG (S.D. Fla. filed Jan. 29, 2025)
Monitor Appointed in SEC Case Concerning Multi-Faceted Fraud on Broad Street Global Fund, LLC and its Investors
On April 21, 2025, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida appointed an agreed-upon monitor in the Securities and Exchange Commission’s ongoing litigation against David J. Feingold, Steven S. Baldassarra, Joseph B. Baldassarra, Broad Street Inc., and Broad Street Global Management, LLC. The SEC charged the defendants with a multi-faceted fraud involving Broad Street Global Fund, LLC (the Fund), a private equity fund. The monitor is charged with evaluating the conduct of Broad Street Inc., Broad Street Global Management, the Fund, and other related corporate entities. The order appointing the monitor also continues a previous stipulated order that states that Defendants will not solicit any potential or actual investors or accept any additional investments on behalf of the Fund until further order of the Court.
According to the SEC’s Complaint, since approximately October 2020, the defendants have raised approximately $1 billion from over a thousand investors for the Fund, which offers investments through separate series, including investments in merchant cash advances, real estate infrastructure development, custom home building, hotel projects, qualified small business stock, and others. Among other things, the Complaint alleges that, rather than use the funds provided by investors to invest on the Fund’s behalf, nearly all investor funds were diverted to accounts and assets owned and controlled by Broad Street Global Management, the Baldassarras, or Broad Street Inc.
The Complaint further alleges that the defendants fraudulently offered and paid inflated returns to investors in at least two major series. For example, the Complaint alleges that the defendants claimed that investments in merchant cash advances – short term funding to small businesses – generated significant profits when in fact they did not. In addition, the Complaint alleges that the Baldassarras engaged in fraud by commingling Fund investor monies and creating cross-liability among the Fund’s series, contrary to promises to investors that their investments would not be subject to the risks of series they did not invest in. The Complaint further alleges that the defendants promised investors in a series related to qualified small business stock would generate tax-free returns, when the funds were not invested as promised. According to the Complaint, collectively, Feingold and the Baldassarras have taken tens of millions of dollars from the Fund.
The SEC’s Complaint, filed on January 29, 2025, remains largely under seal at the request of the defendants; the SEC has moved the Court to unseal the Complaint and other documents. The Complaint charges the defendants with violating the antifraud provisions of Section 17(a)(1) and (3) of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5(a) and (c) thereunder; it also charges the Feingold, the Baldassarras, and Broad Street Global Management, LLC with violating Section 17(a)(2) of the Securities Act of 1933 and the Baldassarras and Broad Street Global Management, LLC with violating Rule 10b-5(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. The Complaint further charges Broad Street Global Management, LLC and the Baldassarras with violating the antifraud provisions of Sections 206(1) and (2) of the Investment Advisers Act of 1940, and names two entities associated with the Baldassarras as relief defendants. The SEC seeks permanent injunctions, disgorgement of ill-gotten gains with prejudgment interest, and civil penalties against all of the defendants.
The SEC’s investigation was conducted by Lee Robinson and Emily Scruggs, and supervised by Ian Karpel and Nicholas Heinke of the SEC’s Denver Regional Office. The litigation is being conducted by Terry Miller and Jacqueline Moessner and supervised by Gregory Kasper and Mr. Heinke, all also of the SEC’s Denver Regional Office.
For further information, see Litigation Release No. 26366.