GPB Automotive Portfolio Tag Archives

GPB Capital Principals Indicted

Published on: February 4, 2021 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Jeffry Schneider, David Gentile, and Jeffrey Lash, GPB Capital Principals Indicted

Our firm has written extensively about GPB Capital and allegations that the “investments” were a massive Ponzi scheme. The U.S. District Attorney for the Eastern District of New York has indicted several of the principals of GPB Capital, and the indictment was unsealed today, February 4, 2021.

Specifically, the district attorney incited Jeffry Schneider, David Gentile, and Jeffrey Lash. These individuals were also all arrested today and will appear before local courts for initial appearances in Austin, Texas, Fort Myers, Florida, and Boston, Massachusetts. According to the indictment, Jeffry Schneider, David Gentile, and Jeffrey Lash misrepresented the GPB Capital investments to investors about “the source of funds used to pay monthly distribution payments to investors in several of the GPB Funds, including Holdings I, Automotive Portfolio and Holdings II, and (b) the revenue generated by Holdings I in 2014 and Automotive Portfolio in 2015.” These allegations are also non-exclusive, meaning the prosecuting attorneys are leaving open-ended the totality of misrepresentations that are at issue.

Leo Financial Advisor and Pruco Securities Broker Robert Luley Allegedly Unsuitably Recommended GPB Automotive to Customers

Published on: November 2, 2020 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Charlotte, NC Advisor Is Named in GPB Private Placement Claims

Robert Leo Luley, a financial advisor based in Charlotte, North Carolina, reportedly marketed and sold investments in GPB Automotive Portfolio from GPB Capital Holdings. The alternative asset firm is accused of running a $1.8B Ponzi scam that allowed brokers and investment advisors to earn over $165M in commissions.

There are several GPB funds, and all of them have lost money. GPB Automotive Portfolio is GPB Capital Holdings’ second-largest fund.

Another GPB Capital Holdings Auditor Resigns

Published on: December 3, 2019 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

GPB Capital Auditor Makes Decision To Step Down

Once again, investors will have to wait for the audited financials that GPB Capital Holdings keeps promising them and then delaying, as the alternative asset firm’s latest auditor has suddenly resigned. This means that for the foreseeable future, those who bought the company’s private placement funds will continue not to know exactly what their investments are worth.

This is not the first team of auditors to suspend its work with GPB Capital, which invests mostly in waste management and auto dealerships and is accused of operating a $1.8B Ponzi scam.

GPB Fails to Meet Its Own Disclosure Deadline, Fires Prime Automotive Group CEO

Published on: September 23, 2019 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

After more than two years without disclosing any audited financial statements to investors or regulators, GPB Capital Holdings has once again missed the deadline for providing a required update to shareholders. This time, the lapsed due date was one it had set for itself. This is just the latest bad news headline plaguing the beleaguered alternative asset firm, which is accused of running a $1.5B Ponzi scam. It is also facing a slew of investor claims for losses sustained after its GPB private placements funds saw a huge drop in value, in some cases by more than 73%.

Once boasting $1.8B in assets involving auto dealerships and waste management, the private placement issuer is now under investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), and multiple state regulators. Two of its former business partners are accusing the company of operating like a Ponzi fraud.

Prime Automotive Group CEO Fired After Suing GPB Capital

GPB Capital Funds Continue To Plunge In Value

Published on: July 19, 2019 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

According to InvestmentNews, alternative asset management company GPB Capital Holdings has notified investors and custodians that its different private placement funds have recently suffered 25-73% losses in value. It’s largest funds, the GPB Automotive Portfolio and GPB Holdings II—together, these two raised $1.27B from investors—have experienced 38% and 25.4% drops, respectively. Such significant losses are clearly not good for investors, who, collectively, have invested about $1.8B in all of the GPB funds.

These private placement funds are invested mostly in waste management and car dealerships and they, along with GPB Capital Holdings, have come under intense scrutiny by both the government and investors. Set up in 2013, the company last year suspended all redemptions involving its funds. An auditing company retained by GPB Capital stepped down in November not long after questions regarding the company’s accounting practices and sales methods arose.

About 60 broker-dealers have sold GPB funds to investors. Advisers usually make a substantial commission for selling the private placements—a typically higher rate than what they’d get for selling mutual funds.