Scott Martin has been covering the financial markets since 1996 and the securities business since 2001. He was a long-time columnist for Research, market writer at CNNfn.com, and editor of Buyside; his work currently appears in publications like The Trust Advisor, Institutional Investor, and EmergingMoney.com.| Former Owners Of First Allied Securities Get SEC Probe Notice |
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| Tuesday, March 13, 2012 14:15 |
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Barely six months after selling their brokerage unit, the heads of Chicago venture capital firm Advanced Equities are under the SEC microscope for private security sales. This Website Is For Financial Professionals Only
Details on the "private offering in 2009" that Keith Daubenspeck and Dwight Badger, chairman and CEO, respectively, got are sparse right now.
Given Advanced Equities' venture capital interests, this could easily be an issue with one of the firm's portfolio companies or a placement to outside investors.
Unfortunately, the firm also offers investment advice to high-net-worth and institutional clients, so there could be a question about an imported third-party investment going sour.
Advanced Equities raised eyebrows in the industry by selling First Allied Securities back in August when funding for private equity deals and other brokerage M&A had dried up.
If there's a problem with the firm's venture cap funds, it means the SEC is widening its crackdown on alternative securities into yet another area of that nebulous marketplace.
Ironically, a simple glitch in a "conventional" private REIT or debt placement that Advanced Equities might have hypothetically recommended to a client would be better news for the industry.
At least that would just be business as usual in the post-Madoff world.
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