The Securities and Exchange Commission announced that three private equity fund advisers within The Blackstone Group have agreed to pay nearly $39 million to settle charges that they failed to fully inform investors about benefits that the advisers obtained from accelerated monitoring fees and discounts on legal fees. Nearly $29 million of the settlement will be distributed to affected fund investors.

An SEC investigation found that Blackstone Management Partners, Blackstone Management Partners III, and Blackstone Management Partners IV failed to adequately disclose the acceleration of monitoring fees paid by fund-owned portfolio companies prior to the companies’ sale or initial public offering. The payments to Blackstone essentially reduced the value of the portfolio companies prior to sale, to the detriment of the funds and their investors. The SEC investigation also found that fund investors were not informed about a separate fee arrangement that provided Blackstone with a much greater discount on services by an outside law firm than the discount that the law firm provided to the funds.

“Full transparency of fees and conflicts of interest is critical in the private equity industry and we will continue taking action against advisers that do not adequately disclose their fees and expenses, as Blackstone did here,” said Andrew J. Ceresney, director of the SEC’s
Division of Enforcement.

“As the beneficiary of the accelerated monitoring fees, Blackstone violated its fiduciary duty by failing to properly disclose the fees,” said Julie M. Riewe, co-chief of the SEC Enforcement Division’s Asset Management Unit. “Blackstone further breached its fiduciary duty by choosing to negotiate a legal fee arrangement with greater benefits for itself than the funds it advised, without properly disclosing the arrangement.”