Nicholas A. Palazzo, et al.
U.S. SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Litigation Release No. 26343 / July 9, 2025
Securities and Exchange Commission v. Nicholas A. Palazzo, 4TA Sports, Inc., NP Ventures Holdings, LLC and Play Caller Sports Gaming LLC, No. 5:24-cv-06602 (N.D. Cal. filed Sept. 20, 2024)
SEC Obtains Final Judgment Against Former Harvard Football Player Nicholas Palazzo and his Corporate Entities for Orchestrating Two Fraudulent Schemes
On June 30, 2025, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California entered final judgment against defendants Nicholas A. Palazzo and his corporate entities, 4TA Sports, Inc., NP Ventures Holdings, LLC, and Play Caller Sports Gaming LLC, whom the SEC previously charged with stealing more than $2 million from investors, including Palazzo’s former Harvard football teammates, a professional athlete, and others, through two securities fraud schemes.
The SEC's Complaint, filed on September 20, 2024, alleged that in the first scheme, Palazzo, through 4TA Sports, raised investor funds for the purported repurchase of the assets of a sports media company. And, in the second scheme, Palazzo, through NP Ventures Holdings and Play Caller Sports Gaming, allegedly raised investor funds to develop and launch a sports betting app. According to the complaint, in both schemes, Palazzo misled investors about how their funds would be used before misappropriating their funds to pay personal expenses, including his children’s private school tuition, his personal rent, and a trip to Disneyland. The SEC’s complaint alleged that Palazzo and 4TA Sports raised $900,000 from three investors and misappropriated nearly all of these funds, while Palazzo, NP Ventures, and Play Caller Sports Gaming raised $2.2 million from 22 investors and misappropriated more than three quarters of those funds.
Without admitting or denying the allegations in the complaint, Palazzo and the corporate defendants consented to the entry of the final judgment permanently enjoining them from violating 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. The final judgment also ordered Palazzo to pay disgorgement in the amount of $2,648,132.73 plus prejudgment interest thereon in, with the corporate defendants being jointly and severally liable for portions of this amount, and to individually pay a $150,000 civil penalty. The final judgment bars Palazzo from acting as an officer or director of a public company for a period of five years and prohibits Palazzo from participating in the issuance, purchase, offer, or sale of any security for a period of five years, other than purchasing or selling securities for his own personal accounts.
The SEC’s litigation was led by Carina A. Cuellar and Brian Fitzsimons and supervised by Christopher Bruckmann. The SEC’s investigation was conducted by Brittany Frassetto and Lauren Poper and supervised by Pei Chung and Stacy Bogert.