With the April 3, 2025 delisting of 1847 Holdings LLC (EFSH), following the prior bankruptcy and delisting of its spinoff Polished.com, it is time to stop framing these as ordinary business failures. This is not a story of mismanagement, market volatility, or unfortunate investing. This is the unraveling of a nearly $700 million, decade-long Ponzi scheme—engineered under the veil of a publicly traded company, orchestrated by insiders who understood the system and abused it deliberately.

Many regulators instinctively reject the notion that a company listed on a national exchange and regulated by the SEC could be a Ponzi scheme. But regulation does not equal legitimacy. In the case of 1847 Holdings, the behavior follows classic Ponzi mechanics. The company would routinely raise capital through dilutive public offerings—often through secondary or follow-on offerings—and within approximately 30 to 45 days, issue dividends to shareholders. These dividends were not funded by profits or free cash flow. They were funded by the very capital just raised from new investors, redistributed to prior shareholders under the false pretense of operational success. This cycle occurred multiple times in the company’s early history, carefully timed to maintain a façade of credibility while draining public capital.

While Polished.com did not issue dividends, it raised more than $500 million in just three years before collapsing. There is compelling reason to believe that capital raised by Polished was also used—directly or indirectly—to prop up 1847 Holdings, bridging financial gaps and sustaining dividends that the company could not support on its own. These entities were controlled by the same external management firm, 1847 Partners, which operated both companies as vehicles of capital extraction rather than growth.

The illusion was further supported by a series of manufactured narratives—glowing press releases announcing acquisitions, synergies, or expansions that were either entirely fabricated or grossly misrepresented. Financial filings were padded with inconsistencies, questionable adjustments, and, tellingly, blanket disclaimers citing “material weaknesses in internal controls.” These disclosures functioned not as a sign of transparency, but as legal insulation from the inevitable consequences of deception. Meanwhile, insiders enriched themselves through management fees, consulting agreements, preferred share arrangements, and undisclosed perks, all while shareholder value was systematically destroyed.

One of the most abusive mechanisms employed was the repeated use of reverse stock splits—eight in total. After each split reset the share count and artificially elevated the stock price, new rounds of toxic dilution would begin. It was a cycle of destruction: reverse, dilute, raise, repeat. Shareholders were diluted into oblivion while insiders benefited from preferred structures and private placements. They squeezed every last penny from the public float, like wringing a lemon dry—then wringing it again and again until nothing was left.

At the center of this scheme was 1847 Partners, controlled by Ellery Roberts and Louis A. Bevilacqua. Bevilacqua is not a passive legal advisor billing for filings. He is the architect of this fraud. As a licensed attorney, he used his expertise not to ensure compliance, but to build the legal and corporate infrastructure of a publicly traded Ponzi scheme. He structured the acquisitions, drafted the offerings, and embedded just enough plausible deniability into public filings to shield himself and his partners from immediate scrutiny. His role wasn’t supportive—it was foundational.

What makes this more egregious is that many of the companies acquired under 1847 Holdings were decades-old, cash-flow-positive businesses—some operating for nearly a century. These were not distressed assets; they were viable enterprises that should have thrived with hundreds of millions in capital behind them. Instead, they were looted, saddled with debt, mismanaged by design, and pushed into bankruptcy. In 2024 alone, nine bankruptcies occurred across the 1847 and Polished portfolios. The only reason the scheme collapsed was because NYSE rules prohibited further reverse splits, cutting off the final escape route.

For over a year, I have been stating clearly and publicly that this was a Ponzi scheme. The difficulty is that Ponzi schemes are often invisible to regulators until they become criminal cases. But if a company raises money under false pretenses, uses that money to pay earlier investors, fabricates press and financials, enriches insiders while leaving a trail of bankruptcies—it doesn’t matter whether the scheme was private or public. You don’t need the word “Ponzi” in the statutes to see what’s happening. This wasn’t an investment opportunity gone bad—it was a fraud with a ticker symbol.

And this isn’t just about 1847 Holdings or Polished. This conduct has harmed the broader microcap space. Bankers, lawyers, and issuers across the industry should take Louis Bevilacqua’s actions personally. He is a large part of the reason why public markets have become harder to access for legitimate small businesses. Rules are tighter, scrutiny is higher, and investor trust is weaker—because of individuals like him. He didn’t just steal from shareholders; he set back an entire ecosystem.

This is not a trivial matter. This is not a learning opportunity. This is one of the most brazen, sustained acts of public market fraud in recent memory. Nearly three-quarters of a billion dollars raised, countless companies destroyed, and shareholders devastated—while insiders walked away enriched. The SEC, DOJ, and FINRA must act. Louis Bevilacqua and Ellery Roberts must be investigated, and if appropriate, prosecuted. The record is clear. The intent was deliberate. The consequences are real. Now, accountability must follow.