The SEC has accused Andrew Spaventa, a 40-year-old from Miller Place, New York, and three companies he controls of running a pre-IPO boiler room that raised more than $74 million from over 800 investors by selling access to private-company shares including SpaceX, Anduril, Anthropic and Perplexity through 11 funds. The complaint says more than 100 commissioned sales agents working from Long Island and New Jersey used high-pressure phone tactics to pitch largely retail investors, including over 100 retirees, while telling clients fees were low or nonexistent and average costs would be capped at 12.5%. Instead, the SEC alleges investors paid average markups of 46%, with SpaceX shares marked up 64% and some markups reaching 91%, generating about $23 million in undisclosed fees, including more than $12 million in commissions for sales agents and roughly $4 million for Spaventa. The SEC is seeking injunctions, restitution, civil penalties and limits on Spaventa's future securities-market activity, adding to scrutiny of the private-share secondary market during an AI-fueled surge in demand for scarce pre-IPO stock.