The Security and Exchange Commission filed a lawsuit earlier this year naming the principals of Broad Street Global Fund in a fraud scheme involving more than $1 billion, according to reports in the Gannett-owned newspaper Greenville Online.
Broad Street Global Fund is a Greenville-based private equity fund where South Carolina politician Andre Bauer serves as a principal advisor.
Broad Street Global announced Bauer’s hire in January of 2024, according to a report in the Greenville Business Magazine.
The SEC brought the fraud charges against Broadstreet in February of 2025, more than a year after Bauer joined the private equity firm.
The SEC claimed that out of the more than $1 billion Broad Street raised, the fund transferred or had investors send about $880 million to a separate fund, Broad Street Global Fund Management.
The SEC further claimed that Broad Street made numerous false and misleading statements to induce investors to invest in the fund.
According to the SEC:
“the defendants have raised approximately $1 billion from over a thousand investors for the Fund, … the Complaint alleges that, rather than use the funds provided by investors to invest on the Fund’s behalf, nearly all investor funds were diverted to accounts and assets owned and controlled by Broad Street Global Management, the Baldassarras, or Broad Street Inc.”
The Complaint further alleges that the defendants fraudulently offered and paid inflated returns to investors in at least two major series.
For example, the Complaint alleges that the defendants claimed that investments in merchant cash advances – short term funding to small businesses – generated significant profits when in fact they did not.
The SEC also claims that Broad Street
engaged in fraud by commingling Fund investor monies and creating cross-liability among the Fund’s series, contrary to promises to investors that their investments would not be subject to the risks of series they did not invest in.
The Complaint further alleges that the defendants promised investors in a series related to qualified small business stock would generate tax-free returns, when the funds were not invested as promised.
According to the Complaint, collectively, Feingold and the Baldassarras have taken tens of millions of dollars from the Fund.
The SEC reports that their complaint, which was filed on Jan. 29, 2025, remains largely under seal at the request of the defendants.
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The news of the SEC’s lawsuit has become noteworthy as a result of Andre Bauer’s recent entrance into the Republican primary to unseat 30-year incumbent Lindsey Graham.
Successful Upstate South Carolina businessman Mark Lynch announced his candidacy to retire Sen. Graham in February. Lynch has seeded his campaign with $5 million of his own cash.
Top South Carolina newspaper the Post and Courier reported that for months, Andre Bauer relentlessly dogged Lindsey Graham in pursuit of a job as ambassador. That campaign never materialized in any work for Bauer. Now Bauer is running against Graham, the man who wouldn’t help him find a job.
Graham’s staff confirmed the Post & Courier report:
"Andre Bauer has spent his career chasing titles to feed his ego, running for five different offices and even trying to leverage Senator Graham and the White House for an ambassadorship. When that failed, he launched his sixth campaign – proving once again, this is all about Making Andre Great Again," Graham spokeswoman Abby Zilch told Fox News in response to Bauer’s entrance to the race.
Bauer’s claims of business prowess are likely to draw scrutiny with the $1 billion SEC suit against Broad Street.
Broadstreet says on its homepage that it's created 2,500 jobs. The press release printed by Greenville Business Magazine says Broadstreet has only 600 workers employed in road and site grading, and various other construction site work. Broad Street does not disclose the number of illegal aliens employed on its projects.
The SEC recently named a monitor to untangle the billion dollars of fraud in April of 2025. You can read that order here.
This reporter reached out to Andre Bauer directly, as well as to his campaign for comment on this story prior to publication. We have yet to receive a response.
Andre Bauer has not publicly announced whether he intends to repay any of the funds he has been paid by Broad Street Global or Broad Street Management. Bauer also has not indicated when he learned about the SEC lawsuit against his firm.
Bauer also has not said whether he intends to publicly resign from Broad Street.