Advanced Equities
As Advanced Equities turns...
February 11, 2013: 2:17 PM ETDefunct firm's ex-brokers find yet another home.
FORTUNE -- Ten days ago I reported that a group of former Advanced Equities brokers had resurfaced at Newport Beach-based Roth Capital Partners, with plans to open a Chicago office and launch a venture finance group. My original source was a January 21 email sent by two of the brokers, Kevin Graetz and Joe Hede, to their former Advanced Equities clients.
The email read, in part:
"A number of former AEI associates and I have come together to launch a new Venture Finance Group for ROTH Capital Partners – a California-based investment bank founded in 1984. Our Group's primary focus will be leading venture round financings for private companies brought to us by our long-standing VC relationships as well as our connected, sophisticated high net worth individual (such as yourself) and institutional clientele... Together with our new colleagues at ROTH, we look forward to creating synergies which will improve both the breadth of investment opportunities we can offer you as well as the breadth of services we can offer our portfolio companies post our venture round investments."
Roth declined to comment at the time, but the transition by Graetz, Hede and at least eight of the fellow AEI vets also was reflected in their LinkinIn profiles.
So imagine my surprise to receive a copy of yet another email from Graetz and Hede, this time announcing that they've joined a different firm. The correspondence, dated last Thursday, reads:
Kevin Graetz and Joe Hede are pleased to announce they have joined Paulson Investment Company, Inc. as part of the Private Equity Venture Group. Since 1978, Paulson Investment Company, Inc. has built a strong and unique reputation as a leading investment banker specializing in small and emerging growth companies with capital needs of $5 million to $50 million. Paulson Investment Company, Inc. has served as a manager or lead underwriter for over 160 offerings, raising over $1 billion for clients.
I rang up Graetz, who hung up after I introduced myself. A message left for Hede has not yet been returned, although both men do seem to now be working a Paulson Investment Co.'s New York office.
MORE: Advanced Equities shutting down
Also worth noting that their LinkedIn profiles reflect just one month of work at Roth Capital. Same goes for Sean Rogers, a former Advanced Equities senior managing director who does not appear to have joined Paulson.
I've put in a new call to Roth to find out what's going on, but am not holding my breath. The phone number for its Chicago office does not get picked up.
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Exclusive: Advanced Equities crew resurfaces
A group of controversial investment bankers resurface.
FORTUNE -- When Advanced Equities shut down last November, my assumption was that its staffers would scatter. After all, it seemed inconceivable that someone would want to help this controversial crew stay together. Not after the SEC settlement and the years of pushing lousy investments like Fisker Automotive. But I was wrong.
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FORTUNE -- Yesterday I began researching a piece on electric carmaker Fisker Automotive, whose board reportedly considered bankruptcy before retaining Evercore to seek new investments.
One of the first things I noticed was that Fisker's website lists Peter McDonnell as a board member. He was as a senior managing director of investment banking for Advanced Equities, the broker-dealer that collapsed last month in the wake MORE
Dan Primack - Dec 12, 2012 12:17 PM ET -
Advanced Equities breaks its silence
Defunct broker-dealer finally contacts its clients.
FORTUNE -- Yesterday I wrote a blog post titled: Dear Advanced Equities, please call your clients. It seemed that in the three weeks since AEI decided to cease operations, its clients had been unable to get any information on the status of their investments. Not just the dentists with $10,000 or $20,000 invested into companies like Bloom Energy or Fisker Automotive, but also those with millions MORE
Dan Primack - Dec 6, 2012 11:01 AM ET -
Dear Advanced Equities: Please call your clients
Advanced Equities is shutting down in silence.
FORTUNE -- It's been nearly three weeks since broker-dealer Advanced Equities decided to cease operations, after having helped raise hundreds of millions of dollars for companies like Bloom Energy and Fisker Automotive. Since then, its clients have been unable to get any information on the status of their investments -- even though some of them have millions of dollars at stake.
On November 17, Advanced MORE
Dan Primack - Dec 5, 2012 4:31 PM ETPosted in: Advanced Equities -
Exclusive: Advanced Equities shutting down
The end of Advanced Equities?
FORTUNE -- Controversial Chicago-based investment firm Advanced Equities is shutting down broker-dealer operations, Fortune has learned.
Sources say that many Advanced Equities brokers were told on Friday that today would be their last day, and many have already begun searching for new employment. A staff meeting is scheduled for later this afternoon. It is currently unclear what will become of the parent company that holds the broker-dealer, MORE
Dan Primack - Nov 12, 2012 1:18 PM ETPosted in: Advanced Equities, Venture Capital -
SEC hits Advanced Equities on Bloom deals
What did Bloom Energy investors know, and from whom did they learn it?
FORTUNE -- For several years, readers have sent sporadic emails about what they considered to be questionable dealings by Advanced Equities – a Chicago-based group best known for marketing large, later-stage venture capital rounds. Now the Securities & Exchange Commission is getting in on the act.
Last week the SEC charged Advanced Equities and its co-founders Dwight Badger and MORE
Dan Primack - Sep 24, 2012 11:11 AM ET
