The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced charges against Dale Tenhulzen and his entity, Live Wealthy Institute, LLC, for unlawfully selling securities of Florida-based real estate firm EquiAlt LLC to retail investors while acting as unregistered brokers.

According to the SEC's complaint, between approximately April 2015 and September 2019, Tenhulzen was among EquiAlt's top revenue producers, selling approximately $15 million of its unregistered securities to more than 60 retail investors.  Tenhulzen and Live Wealthy allegedly received approximately $1.5 million in transaction-based commissions from their sales of EquiAlt securities, even though neither of them was registered as a broker-dealer or permitted to sell securities. The complaint alleges that during most of Tenhulzen and Live Wealthy's sales, EquiAlt was actually operating a massive Ponzi scheme during which it raised more than $170 million from approximately 1,100 investors in more than 35 states. The SEC filed an emergency enforcement action against EquiAlt LLC, its CEO Brian Davison, and its Managing Director Barry Rybicki on February 11, 2020, in connection with the alleged scheme. On February 14, 2020, a federal judge granted the SEC's request for emergency relief, including a temporary restraining order, an asset freeze, and an accounting, and appointed a receiver over the corporate defendants and relief defendants.

The SEC's complaint charges Tenhulzen and Live Wealthy with violating the securities registration provisions of Sections 5(a) and 5(c) of the Securities Act of 1933, and the broker-dealer registration provisions of Section 15(a)(1) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Without admitting or denying the allegations in the complaint, Tenhulzen and Live Wealthy have agreed to full injunctive relief with disgorgement and civil money penalties to be determined by a court at a later date.

The SEC's continuing investigation is being conducted by Andre Zamorano and Chanel T. Rowe, with assistance from Mark Dee, and supervised by Thierry Olivier Desmet and Glenn S. Gordon in the Miami Regional Office. The SEC's litigation is being led by Alise Johnson and supervised by Andrew O. Schiff. The SEC acknowledges the assistance of the Arizona Corporation Commission in connection with the EquiAlt investigation.

The SEC encourages investors to check the backgrounds of people selling investments by using the SEC's Investor.gov to identify quickly whether they are registered professionals and confirm their identity.