On July 3, 2025, the SEC charged Eliseo Prisno of P/E Capital Investment Management Partners of Chicago with charging improper fees. This fraudulent billing practice violates numerous state and federal laws.
The SEC’s complaint alleges that from at least February 2019 through at least July 2023, Prisno and P/E Capital charged more than $2.4 million in unauthorized fees to his and his firm’s investors. In some instances, the complaint alleges, Prisno and P/E Capital deceptively circumvented their brokerage firm’s requirement that clients directly authorize any additional fees by using their clients’ login credentials to access their accounts without their consent.
The SEC’s complaint, filed in federal district court in Chicago, charges Prisno and P/E Capital with violating the antifraud provisions of Sections 206(1) and 206(2) of the Advisers Act. The complaint seeks permanent injunctions, disgorgement, the repayment to investors, with prejudgment interest, and civil penalties against both defendants, and a conduct-based injunction against Prisno.
The complaint of the SEC described the scam. First, Prisno and P/E would facilitate the client’s opening of a brokerage account with Brokerage Firm A by creating a username, password, and account security questions for the client on custodial brokerage’s, a brokerage firm where the trades would be made, online platform. While some clients changed their passwords, others continued to use the password provided to them by P/E Capital. This enabled Defendants to access an investor’s account without her knowledge. The brokerage account opening documents supplied to the investor included no reference to any Added Fees.
Second, P/E Capital would provide the custodial brokerage with the client’s purported contact information, which oftentimes included a mobile phone number and an email address controlled by P/E, not the client. From there, Prison and P/E controlled the account and any warning would go to them and not the investor. Taking advantage of this, approved the fraudulent fee and made the approval appear to be the investor’s approval.
Prisno’s record reveals that he worked for P/E since 2015. He also previously worked for Merrill Lynch.
The federal court complaint also identifies that Prisno targeted the Filipino community. The investors Prison targeted were also largely unexperienced with investing.
As an investment advisor, Prisno is a fiduciary of his investors and is required to put their interests ahead of his own. He is also required to fully and completely disclose the compensation that he and his firm receives from his investment actions on his investors’ behalf.
We are a firm dedicated to informing investors and not just protecting investors of advisor misdeeds. Please contact us with any questions concerning this matter.
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