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The Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating Guggenheim Partners LLC’s asset-management arm relating to the $85M purchase of music producer David Geffen’s former Malibu mansion and a couple of other upscale properties in Pacific Palisades and other deals, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Guggenheim CEO Mark Walter co-owns the Malibu property along with ABS Capital Co., a Miami-based company owned by two former Guggenheim managers.
ABS Capital Co. told the WSJ it owns the other two Pacific Palisades properties that the SEC is looking into. A Guggenheim executive who is on leave lives in one of the properties, a $13.5M mansion in Pacific Palisades, the New York Post reports.
The SEC examination staff began looking at Guggenheim's operations, certain investments and disclosures in 2017, the WSJ previously reported.
Though a Guggenheim spokesman previously said the real estate deals were not funded by Guggenheim Partners, the SEC has asked Guggenheim and ABS Capital to keep all transaction documents.
“We are cooperating fully with the SEC’s investigation of our subsidiary, Guggenheim Partners Investment Management and we cannot comment further,” a Guggenheim spokesman told the WSJ.
Additionally, the SEC is looking into an ABS Capital loan in 2016 to BCBG Max Azria Group LLC before that company went bankrupt. At the time, Guggenheim was BCBG's controlling shareholder and a large debt holder, according to the WSJ.
The SEC declined to comment.
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