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For LP investors, before the wire

12 things you can verify about a sponsor — before the money moves.

You are about to wire a large sum to someone you met through a webinar, a podcast, or a friend. Most of what you can actually verify sits in free public records. This page lists twelve checks. The first eight you can run yourself in about 90 minutes, for free. The last four are the ones that are genuinely hard to do alone — that is what our reports are for.

What this checklist is — and is not

  • It is information. Each check points at an official public record and says what it shows. You draw the conclusions.
  • It is not advice. Not legal, financial, or investment advice, and not a recommendation to invest or not invest in anything.
  • It is not a screening service. Searching an official register yourself is not the same as a systematic search across many sources with identity checks — which is what our paid reports do.
  • Absence of records is weak evidence. A clean search result means the register you checked shows nothing. It does not mean the register is complete or that nothing exists elsewhere.

The eight you can run yourself — free, about 90 minutes

All eight use official, free, publicly searchable records. Write down what you find for each one, with the URL and the date — a record you can re-check later is worth more than an impression.

1The offering is actually filed — the Form D

Most private real-estate syndications raise under Regulation D and file a Form D with the SEC. Look up the deal entity there: the filing shows the filer, the offering amount, and the people listed on the filing.

Where: SEC EDGAR company search · EDGAR full-text search

What it doesn't show: a Form D is a notice, not an approval. The SEC does not vet the deal. And if the sponsor told you a filing exists but you cannot find it, that is a question to ask — not a verdict on its own.

2The entity on your wire instructions is the entity in the filing

Take the exact entity name from your wire instructions and compare it, letter for letter, to the filer on the Form D and the entity in your subscription documents. They should name the same operating company. This is the cheapest check on the list, and it catches the most basic mismatch: money sent to an entity that is not the one raising.

If the names do not match, stop and ask the sponsor in writing. There can be a legitimate structure reason — and the answer itself tells you something.

3The sponsor's offering history

Search EDGAR for every past Form D by the sponsor entity and the named principals. Prior raises since 2008, amendments, and amounts give you the sponsor's actual track record of coming to market — as filed, not as pitched.

Where: same EDGAR company search, run once per entity and once per principal

4The principal's adviser and broker record

If the sponsor or its principals are registered — as an investment adviser or with a broker-dealer — their official record shows registration status, reportable disciplinary events, and employment history. These registers exist for exactly this purpose: investors checking the people asking for their money.

Where: SEC IAPD — adviser records · FINRA BrokerCheck

What it doesn't show: no registration is common and legal for many private sponsors — absence from IAPD is not a red flag on its own. It just means this register has nothing to say, and the other checks carry more weight.

5SEC enforcement events naming the principal

The SEC publishes searchable records of enforcement actions. The SEC's Action Lookup tools cover named defendants and respondents in SEC federal-court actions and administrative proceedings. Search the principal's full name.

Where: the SEC's Action Lookup — Individuals (SALI), reachable from the SEC website's enforcement section

Identity discipline: common names produce false matches. Before treating a hit as yours, match the jurisdiction, dates, and any company named in the action to your sponsor.

6Sanctions screening

The US Treasury publishes a searchable list of specially designated nationals and blocked persons. Search the exact names of the sponsor entity and each named principal.

Where: OFAC SDN search

An exact-name hit is a stop-and-verify event — names collide, and the list entry will carry identifiers to check. A no-hit result only means the name is not on this list.

7Federal court dockets

CourtListener's RECAP archive mirrors federal court filings and is free to search. Look for dockets naming the sponsor entity or the principals — as plaintiff or defendant.

Where: CourtListener (RECAP)

Coverage is partial — RECAP archives many dockets, not all; PACER remains the complete system of record. When you find a docket, open it and check the case number, filing dates, and parties before concluding it is your sponsor.

8An adverse-news sweep

Run a tight search: the sponsor's exact entity name and each principal's name in quotes, paired one at a time with words like SEC, barred, complaint, judgment, Ponzi. Repeat for the city where they operate. GDELT indexes news worldwide if you want the broad net.

Where: any search engine, plus GDELT

A clean result is one of the weakest signals on this list — absence of news is not a record. Treat this check as catching positives, never as clearing anyone.

The four that are hard to do yourself

These are the checks where an afternoon of manual searching runs out. They are what a Shield report is built around — run systematically, with every hit anchored to identifiers and cited to the source record.

9Screening beyond the single search

Points 4–7 each search one register. A report probes additional sanctions lists, registries, and courts beyond those — systematically, in one pass, with everything it finds cited in the PDF.

10Every entity in the structure — not just the name you were given

A syndication is rarely one company: sponsor, general partner, manager, borrower — several entities, and the one on the deck is not always the one that matters. Mapping the structure and screening each entity in it is manual-checking work that most people never start.

11Identity disambiguation

Common names produce false hits across IAPD, enforcement lookups, and court dockets. A report anchors every entry to identifiers — docket number, filing date, jurisdiction — and flags genuine ambiguity for your review instead of guessing.

12A written, cited record you can keep

The deliverable is a PDF: what was searched, what was found, verdict per principal (PASS / REVIEW / BLOCK / UNRESOLVED), prior offerings, discipline history with case numbers, and a retrieval date on every claim. Something you can show a partner, a spouse, or a co-investor — and re-run next year.

Reading the PPM is not on this list — it is assumed

The private placement memorandum is the actual contract-level description of the deal: fees, waterfall, conflicts, risk factors. The deck is marketing; the PPM is the document. None of the twelve checks above replaces reading it — with your attorney where the amounts justify it. The checklist tells you what the public record says about the people; the PPM tells you what you are signing.

Run the free sponsor scan

Free, no account needed. See which public-record sources already return something for your sponsor.

Assembled by Victor Bar, Assets Flow · Last updated: 2026-09-22 · Corrections: [email protected]

Important: this checklist points at official public records and describes what they show. It is information, not legal, financial, or investment advice, and not a recommendation to invest or not invest in any offering. Shield Reports does not recommend, approve, endorse, or disapprove of any sponsor, principal, deal, or investment. All interpretation is the sole responsibility of the reader. A Shield report is not a consumer report under the FCRA and may not be used for purposes covered by the FCRA. Coverage of public-record sources varies by jurisdiction; our methodology page lists, per tier, every source checked — and what we do not yet check.