SEC Halts Alleged Ongoing Offering Fraud Involving Cycling Companies

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced an emergency action including a temporary restraining order and asset freeze to stop an alleged fraudulent offering of securities and misappropriation of investor assets by Outdoor Capital Partners LLC and its director Samuel J. Mancini of Denver, Colorado. The SEC alleges that the defendants made false statements in raising millions of dollars for an investment fund ostensibly to purchase controlling interests in three Italian cycling companies, but never made the acquisitions and instead fraudulently diverted money raised. According to the SEC’s complaint unsealed today, the defendants raised approximately $11.5 million from at least 40 investors beginning in late 2019 by selling membership units in an investment fund and short-term, high-interest loan contracts.