Prestige Investment Group

I invested $104,000 in Prestige Fund D V, an ATM ownership fund managed by Prestige Funds Management. The fund purchased ATM hard assets, with Paramount Management Group (controlled by Daryl Heller) handling placement and operations. The projected returns were extraordinary: 24.7% cash-on-cash, $2,142/month per $104K tranche, with a 7-year term and a 4-year payback period. They also marketed significant depreciation benefits (100% bonus depreciation in Year 1). My diligence before investing was extensive. I spoke to the operator multiple times. I reviewed what were presented as audited financials. I had friends who had completed multiple site visits across states — they physically went to locations and verified ATMs were there. The fund had 10+ years of consistent monthly distributions with investors going full cycle. Major banks were underwriting them with hundreds of millions in loans. This wasn't some fly-by-night operation — it had all the hallmarks of legitimacy. Distributions stopped in April 2024. By July, legal counsel (Kelley Clarke PC) had served a formal Notice of Default on Paramount. What emerged was that Heller had been diverting Monthly Revenue Remittances, using investor-owned ATMs as collateral for debt obligations of other Heller entities. The situation escalated through litigation in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. In November 2024, a $138 million judgment was entered against Paramount. As of this writing, the likelihood of Paramount completing an investor buyout has been described by counsel as "remote." I invested $104K. I received approximately $40K in distributions before things collapsed. The rest is gone. Here's what I wrestle with: what additional diligence could I have done? Even public companies like Enron had audited financials and turned out to be fraudulent. The ATM space itself is not fake — ATMs are real assets that generate real surcharge revenue. An operator simply turned into a bad actor. Site visits confirmed ATMs existed. Banks had underwritten them. Other LPs had gone full cycle. I don't think there's really much more diligence I could have done. I do think about it a lot, though. Losing money isn't great. Lesson for other LPs: Not every deal is going to work out. That's just the reality of passive investing. This is why you diversify — across operators, asset classes, and vintages. No amount of diligence eliminates the possibility of a loss. You size your positions so that when one doesn't go your way, it doesn't sink the ship.

Defrauded investors out of $100s of millions. Enough said.

Best case scenario, Daryl Heller is a shady sponsor who after years of paying distributions, made a some last minute shady moves in an attempt to enrich himself at the expense of investors. Worst case, it was a Ponzi scheme all along. Investors are suing him now and he is supposedly settling. We shall see if investors actually get paid. Apparently there are multiple lawsuits in various jurisdictions and he is being investigated by the SEC as well as other regulators.

July 2024: Very poor experience. Pattern of behavior to date: 1) Prestige fails to make distribution on agreed upon date, 2) Prestige establishes a new date for distribution after payment is missed, 3) repeat steps 1 & 2 over and over. Communication is serially tardy and provided only after a distribution is missed despite the fund manager knowing well in advance that the distribution will be late. Too numerous to count irrelevant excuses provided for repeat communication/distribution failures. Direct inquiries to management go without reply. Happy to update this review if/when things improve.