Bancroft Capital LLC, a Fort Washington-based investment firm, had a federal lawsuit dropped against them by Fitness Champs Holdings Ltd., a Singapore swimming-education company that Bancroft took public last year, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

Bancroft Capital LLC was founded by Cauldon D. Quinn, a disabled U.S. Navy veteran. The firm operates as a certified Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business.

According to an April news release, New York law firm Wolf Haldenstein Adler Freeman & Herz LLP filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of people and entities that purchased or acquired Fitness Champs securities between September 3, 2025, and September 23, 2025.

From the release:

The Company conducts its purported business operations in Singapore through two wholly owned subsidiaries: Fitness Champs PTE LTD and Fitness Champs Aquatics PTE LTD. FCHL purports on its website to be “a distinguished sports education provider, playing a pivotal role in shaping the aquatic landscape in Singapore.” The Company completed its initial public offering on September 4, 2025, selling two million ordinary shares at an offering price of $4.00 per share, raising $8M in gross proceeds (the “IPO”).

Defendants made materially false and/or misleading statements and failed to disclose material adverse facts about the Company’s business, operations, and the true nature of the trading activity in the securities. Specifically, Defendants failed to disclose to investors that: (1) FCHL was the subject of a market manipulation and fraudulent promotion scheme involving social-media based misinformation and impersonators posing as financial professionals; (2) FCHL’s public statements and risk disclosures omitted any mention of the realized risk of fraudulent trading or market manipulation used to drive the Company’s stock price; (3) as a result, FCHL securities were at unique risk of a sustained suspension in trading by NASDAQ and severe volatility-induced decline; (4) the sole underwriter on the IPO, Bancroft, had conducted numerous microcap IPOs that suffered volatility-induced declines resulting from market manipulation schemes; and (5) as a result of the foregoing, Defendants’ positive statements about the Company’s business, operations and prospects were materially misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis.

This case arises from the sudden collapse of FCHL’s stock price on September 23, 2025, due to a fraudulent market manipulation scheme that caused the Company’s stock price to trade as high $7.20 per share on September 19, 2025, despite no fundamental news to justify such a spike in the Company’s stock price. Investigation and public reports have revealed that FCHL was a vehicle utilized in a market manipulation and “pump-and-dump” promotional scheme. Impersonators acting as financial advisors touted FCHL in online forums, chat groups, and social media posts, with baseless claims to create a buying frenzy amongst retail investors.

On September 23, 2025, the Company’s stock price collapsed 84.6% to close at $1.07 per share, down from $6.95 per share on the prior day’s close of trading.

Shares of FCHL have continued to trend lower after the end of the class period and now trade below $0.40 per share.

On May 18, Wolf Haldenstein Adler Freeman & Herz LLP announced it was investigating and seeking shareholders of Magnitude International, a Singapore contracting firm, which had also been taken public by Bancroft.

Trading in that stock was stopped in December by Nasdaq and the SEC.

Singapore-based investor Lim Yen Nee “agreed to drop Bancroft as a defendant after Bancroft’s lawyer Jaimie Nawaday warned in a May 19 letter to Lim’s lawyers that federal securities law doesn’t support cases against parties only ‘tangentially’ connected or allow ‘tossing Bancroft into a catch-all group’ without showing how it was allegedly responsible for investor losses”, The Inquirer wrote.

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