SEC Charges Advisers Over Fake OpenAI and SpaceX Pre-IPO Funds

The SEC sued Owen Meyer and his firm Meyer Global Management in federal court in Manhattan on Wednesday, alleging he raised at least $18.5 million from nearly 100 investors while misappropriating at least $1.27 million in client money.

Meyer, 35, marketed 16 funds, each pitched as holding stakes in a single pre-IPO company — most often Elon Musk-led SpaceX, alongside Sam Altman's OpenAI. Many funds never held the shares at all, the regulator claims.

The complaint details one April 2023 night in particular. The SEC says Meyer spent more than $18,000 in fund capital on "personal entertainment" at a strip club. When his firm's debit card was declined twice on a $4,400 bill at 4:41 a.m., Meyer transferred $10,000 from a fund account holding investor money raised to buy shares of online casino operator Playstar, according to the SEC. He paid the club $4,400 at 4:44 a.m. and another $3,650 at 5:30 a.m., with receipts listing drinks and "entertainment room rental fees."

Memo lines on transfers to the strip club's manager read "movie tickets and theatre performance" and "opera." The manager testified that "Meyer visited the club alone, not with any business associates or friends," the complaint states. Asked by SEC staff about the $10,000 transfer, Meyer invoked his Fifth Amendment rights. He did not respond to a request for comment. The SEC characterized the transfer as an undisclosed "interest-free loan" because Playstar investors eventually got their money back.

In the OpenAI fund, Meyer allegedly never obtained any shares. A deal to acquire OpenAI assets fell through in March 2024, yet six investors wired nearly $1.1 million the following month and were not told for roughly six months that no investment existed. Meyer paid himself about $168,000 in fees anyway — more than triple what investors agreed to — some of which went to landscaping at his Setauket, New York home, the SEC says. Only about $15,600 remains in the fund.

His SpaceX vehicles fared no better. Meyer told investors in 2021 that a large purchase in SpaceX assets had closed even though the third-party fund holding the shares would not approve the transfer, according to the complaint. He allegedly misappropriated about $570,000 from those funds, including $100,000 for a personal investment in an exotic-car company and $220,000 sent to his personal bank account. In 2025, as three SpaceX funds were liquidated, Meyer allegedly moved about $636,000 into his personal account, spending thousands at Bloomingdale's and Amazon and sending $86,000 to his father. About $13.1 million was ultimately returned to investors.

On the day of the June 12 SpaceX IPO, Meyer emailed investors: "This is a dream that many of us have followed for years, and today we have the opportunity to participate in what I believe will be one of the most important companies of our generation." He closed by telling them to "stay tuned" for updates on distributions. The SEC says the fund held no SpaceX shares to distribute. The regulator is seeking to bar Meyer from the industry, plus disgorgement and penalties.

In a second case announced Wednesday, the SEC and federal prosecutors charged former naval officer Christopher Dinelli, 34, and Jacob Frankel, 32, with defrauding 35 investors of more than $8.7 million through their firm, Beyond Alpha Ventures. Their marketing falsely listed SpaceX and xAI as holdings, the SEC claims. The pair allegedly pitched a trading fund with "153%" net returns plus pre-IPO stakes in crypto exchange Kraken and SandboxAQ, the AI software firm chaired by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt.

The trading fund lost money in 13 of 14 months, and less than half the nearly $6 million raised for pre-IPO deals went into them, the complaint states. Frankel allegedly lost $2.8 million in margin trading, including $1.9 million on a single options trade. The two allegedly sent fake statements, including one Dinelli "hand-delivered" to a Navy veteran couple claiming their $750,000 had grown to $4.1 million. Dinelli allegedly misappropriated more than $1 million, including $250,000 into a documentary film; Frankel allegedly took more than $340,000, partly to pay his criminal defense lawyer.

Frankel denied the allegations in a telephone interview, calling them "completely false" and saying the "truth will come out in court." He said he terminated Dinelli "two years ago." Frankel was convicted of grand larceny and identity theft in March 2026 and allegedly hid that conviction and a Finra suspension from regulators. Dinelli, Beyond Alpha's chairman until July 2025, did not respond to a request for comment.

None of the companies named — OpenAI, SpaceX, xAI, Kraken, SandboxAQ — nor their executives are alleged to have engaged in wrongdoing. The cases are the latest in a series of SEC enforcement actions over pre-IPO stakes and hidden fees following SpaceX's $1.8 trillion June IPO, signaling that regulators will keep pressing fund advisers who sell retail investors access to startups they never actually hold.