--- title: "S.E.C. Says Fund Advisers Took Investor Money Meant for SpaceX and OpenAI Shares" description: "One adviser allegedly paid a 4:41 a.m. strip club bill with fund money; a second pair allegedly faked returns for Navy veterans" author: "rews desk" published: 2026-10-01T04:58:28.897Z modified: 2026-10-01T05:53:25Z url: https://rews.cc/a/s-e-c-says-fund-advisers-took-investor-money-meant-for-space-9cbd72 language: en tags: ["sec", "fraud", "openai", "spacex", "investors", "business"] publisher: "Rews (https://rews.cc)" --- # S.E.C. Says Fund Advisers Took Investor Money Meant for SpaceX and OpenAI Shares *One adviser allegedly paid a 4:41 a.m. strip club bill with fund money; a second pair allegedly faked returns for Navy veterans* By rews desk · October 1, 2026 · https://rews.cc/a/s-e-c-says-fund-advisers-took-investor-money-meant-for-space-9cbd72 ## In brief - The S.E.C. filed two cases on Wednesday against advisers selling pre-I.P.O. stakes in OpenAI, SpaceX and other startups - Owen Meyer raised $18.5 million from nearly 100 investors; the S.E.C. says he misappropriated at least $1.27 million - The S.E.C. says Meyer shifted fund money to pay more than $18,000 in strip club charges one night in April 2023 - Christopher Dinelli and Jacob Frankel are accused of defrauding 35 investors of over $8.7 million through Beyond Alpha Ventures - Frankel denied the allegations by phone; both men face criminal fraud charges The Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday accused two sets of private fund advisers of deceiving small investors, including Navy veterans, who handed over millions of dollars for what they believed were pre-I.P.O. stakes in companies like OpenAI and SpaceX. None of the startups themselves are accused of wrongdoing. The cases are the latest in a run of S.E.C. actions over pre-I.P.O. shares, misappropriated funds and hidden fees since SpaceX’s $1.8 trillion public offering in June; other recent charges have involved advisers promising access to Anduril, Anthropic and Perplexity as valuations climbed. In one complaint, filed in federal court in Manhattan, the agency said Owen Meyer, 35, and his firm, Meyer Global Management, raised at least $18.5 million from nearly 100 investors through 16 funds, each meant to buy stock in a single private company. Mr. Meyer misappropriated at least $1.27 million along the way, the S.E.C. said. One night in April 2023 ran past dawn. Mr. Meyer spent more than $18,000 in fund capital on what the complaint calls his “personal entertainment” at a strip club. When a debit card tied to one of his companies was declined twice on a $4,400 bill at 4:41 a.m., the S.E.C. said, he moved $10,000 from a fund account holding only investor money, then paid the club $4,400 at 4:44 a.m. and $3,650 more at 5:30 a.m., for receipts listing drinks and “entertainment room rental fees.” That same night, the complaint says, he sent another $10,000 from a fund raised to buy shares of the online casino operator Playstar directly to the club’s manager, with memo lines reading “movie tickets and theatre performance” and “opera.” The manager testified that Mr. Meyer had come alone. Asked by S.E.C. staff about the transfer, Mr. Meyer invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. He did not respond to a request for comment. The funds often went wrong earlier in the chain. A deal to acquire OpenAI assets fell through in March 2024, yet six investors wired nearly $1.1 million the next month and were not told for about six months that there was no investment, the S.E.C. said. Mr. Meyer paid himself about $168,000 in fees anyway, more than triple what investors had agreed to, and some of it went to landscaping at his home in Setauket, N.Y. In 2021, he told investors a large SpaceX purchase had closed even though the fund holding the shares would not release them. When three other SpaceX funds were liquidated last year, the complaint says, he moved about $636,000 meant for investors into his personal account, spent thousands at Bloomingdale’s and Amazon and sent $86,000 to his father. One fund forfeited its entire SpaceX stake after Mr. Meyer failed to pay a $46,000 capital call, the complaint says. On June 12, the day SpaceX went public, he still emailed his SpaceX-fund investors: “This is a dream that many of us have followed for years,” and told them to “stay tuned” for their distributions. That fund held no SpaceX shares to distribute. About $13.1 million was returned to investors after the liquidation. The S.E.C. is seeking to bar Mr. Meyer from the industry, along with repayment and penalties. In the second case, the S.E.C. and federal prosecutors charged Christopher Dinelli, 34, a former naval officer, and Jacob Frankel, 32, with defrauding 35 investors of more than $8.7 million through their firm, Beyond Alpha Ventures. The pair pitched a trading fund with “153%” net returns plus stakes in the crypto exchange Kraken and in SandboxAQ, an artificial intelligence company chaired by the former Google C.E.O. Eric Schmidt. Marketing materials also listed SpaceX and xAI as holdings the funds never had, the complaint says. The trading fund lost money in 13 of 14 months, according to the complaint, and less than half the nearly $6 million raised for pre-I.P.O. deals ever went into them. Mr. Frankel lost $2.8 million margin trading, including $1.9 million on a single options trade. The two are accused of sending investors fake statements, one of which Mr. Dinelli hand-delivered to a Navy veteran couple showing their $750,000 had grown to $4.1 million. Mr. Dinelli, a patient at a Veterans Affairs clinic in Pensacola, Fla., recruited fellow veterans and medical staff there, the complaint says. He allegedly took more than $1 million, including $250,000 invested in a documentary film; Mr. Frankel allegedly took more than $340,000, partly to pay his criminal defense lawyer. Reached by phone, Mr. Frankel denied the allegations, calling them “completely false” and saying the “truth will come out in court.” He said he had terminated Mr. Dinelli “two years ago.” The complaint lists Mr. Dinelli as Beyond Alpha’s chairman until July 2025. Mr. Dinelli did not respond to a request for comment. Mr. Frankel was convicted in March of grand larceny and identity theft, which the S.E.C. says he concealed in required regulatory filings. Prosecutors charged both men with securities fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy. Mr. Frankel also faces counts of investment adviser fraud and false statements over filings that allegedly hid his conviction and a Finra suspension.