The One with the Pre-IPO Shares

Peter Quartararo met with potential investors and told them that he had access to “pre-IPO” stock in Peloton, WeWork, and Airbnb.

The first potential investor was an acquaintance that had done a favor for Mr. Quartararo. He offered to let the investor buy the shares in WeWork and AirBnB at his cost, with was less than $2.00. That investor wrote a check for $96,000 to Quartararo’s firm, Private Equity Solutions, with the notation “Stock Purchase IPO.”

A few weeks later, Quartararo came back to this investor with access to pre-IPO shares in Peloton. That investor wrote a check for $71,000. That investor shared the opportunity with some friends and Mr. Quartararo also sold them some shares. In all, Quartararo raised $436,000 from this pool of investors.

After Peloton and AirBnB had their public offerings of shares, the investors began asking for the shares to be sold and the profits sent to them. Mr. Quartararo kept putting them off.

According to the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Nassau County District Attorney, Mr. Quartararo never had access to the shares in those companies. Instead, Mr. Quartararo pocketed the cash and used it for personal purposes, including to buy a Maserati.

If the investors had checked the BrokerCheck system, they would have seen that he was barred from acting as a stockbroker. The bar was imposed in 2013 because Mr. Quartararo stolen money from a client. He had a prior history of other misdeeds before being barred.

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