On any given day at downtown Greenville airport, a private jet will land and debarking off the aircraft is a bald unassuming man. Few really know how much influence this unassuming man wields in the Carolinas and especially in South Carolina. His name is David Feingold and to many he is the pinnacle of contradiction. Ask people who have known him for years and they will tell you stories of him randomly meeting disadvantaged people and paying for their entire college or graduate school education. Merely meeting someone and being impressed with their work ethic is enough for Feingold to perform such a random act of charity, and he’s done it multiple times.
On the other hand, speak to people who are on the opposing side of a business deal of his and they paint a picture of a ruthless litigant, who stops at nothing to destroy his opponents, including spending millions on lawsuits and having done so for years. A simple search of the court records shows dozens and dozens of lawsuits. Importantly, he seems to always prevail, no matter how bad it may appear.
His first reported foray into the court system was nearly 30 years ago when he litigated with the SEC over a tender offer that he made to take over a public company. At the time, he was in his late twenties and arguably the youngest man to ever attempt a hostile takeover of a public company. In the end, Feingold reportedly made a great deal of money but settled with the SEC for fifty thousand dollars over a minor issue that today is lawful. That is, he did his tender offer solicitation over the internet, at that time he used AOL. It appears that he was way ahead of his time in the technique that he deployed, as now it is a well-recognized practice today of using the internet to solicit proxies. He might have been the first person to ever do that.
Similarly, nearly 15 years ago Feingold built one of the largest private lenders but then settled with the FTC for nearly eighteen million dollars when the mortgage market collapsed in 2008 as did his company. However, when the Florida Bar did an entire investigation of the matter, Feingold is a lawyer subject to bar regulation, the Bar took no disciplinary action against Feingold. The Bar took depositions of all participants and made a finding of no bad conduct involving Feingold. In fact, they did not even put a cautionary letter in his file, which is the most minimal punishment they could have issued. Once again, controversy but Feingold prevailed.
Now, Feingold is in a battle again with the SEC who has accused one of his private equity firms (Broadstreet) of fraud, however, in true Feingold fashion it appears the SEC case is quite weak and troubling for the government. In fact, the lead lawyer from the SEC who filed the case just recently resigned. It came out in open court that the SEC lawyer told a federal judge that only sixty thousand dollars of nearly eight hundred million dollars raised was found, thus implying that the rest of the money was missing and that there was fraud. However, the SEC’s own expert, whose own boss is an investor of Feingold’s for years, actually contradicted the SEC and confirmed that all money was accounted for and that there was more than seven hundred million dollars put in business deals, just as represented to investors. The remaining monies were management fees, all of which were signed to and accepted by investors. Needless to say, quite the embarrassment for the SEC to have an expert that contradicted the statements of their own lead trial counsel and the expert’s own boss acting as a longtime investor in Feingold’s business.
To add further insult to injury, the boss is also a certified fraud examiner and certified public accountant who most certainly would not have stayed in such an investment if something amiss was happening. After this turn of events, the SEC stopped the court hearing on the first day and asked the Judge to suspend the matter. Thereafter, the lead SEC trial counsel resigned from the case and retired from the SEC but is now apparently out in the legal market seeking employment. Hence, claims of retirement from the practice of law do not seem to reconcile with seeking continued employment.

One of the multiple upscale hotel properties Feingold helped develop in the Carolinas
Feingold, who rarely gives detailed interviews or comments, is known for his sense of humor. He generally holds weekly video calls with his businesses and various employees. Many of his employees cite the weekly call as the highlight of their week referring to the call as part talk show, part comedy review and instructional for learning about the business. Feingold has also been known to hold quarterly and annual video calls with business partners, investors and employees where nearly one thousand people appear just to listen to his humor and outlook.
Andal Patel says, “his zoom calls are the highlight of our evening, he is super funny and makes it really interesting to learn about the business. It’s a commonsense approach, kind of like we are all friends on this call. He often picks on one of the hundreds of people on the zoom calls, especially his son who he complains that he spent hundreds of thousands on a college education and his son can barely run the audio visual drone footage. It’s hysterical. He is also very self-deprecating, makes fun of himself all of the time, I’ve never seen another CEO quite like him. He is the CEO with no ego, I simply adore the guy. Literally all of his employees speak the same way, except they do say when you get bad results or do not put in the effort then you see a very unpleasant side. It all seems to work, can’t argue with the success”

Aerial view of one of nearly one hundred real estate projects which Feingold presently has under development through his private equity firm
In fact, when asked to comment for this article, Feingold politely refused just about every question except when asked about his penchant for litigation he said, “Shakespeare once said kill all of the lawyers. I obviously wasn’t paying attention in school that day. I thought the teacher said Shakespeare said employ all of the lawyers.” First, Feingold was not kidding about employing all of the lawyers, no one knows exactly what he spends each year on lawyers, except it has to be a lot, he’s always in litigation.
When asked about how many depositions he’s given in his life, he responds, “That’s the one number of mine that is higher than Elon Musk, I’ve actually broken Elon Musk’s record and been deposed by the SEC more times than him. I am fine with it, it does go with the territory, makes sense now why Musk wants to leave this territory and go to Mars.”
Humor aside, what is known about Feingold is that he obviously did pay attention in school despite his joke about Shakespeare and Mars. He is a graduate of Emory University for both undergraduate and law school where he won virtually every academic award conceivable including graduating the top of his class, also being awarded magna cum laude and phi beta kappa for high grade achievement and also being recognized as the outstanding student in mathematics, physics and accounting.
More importantly, Feingold overseas a multitude of businesses primarily located in South Carolina with branches in North Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama and Georgia and includes a private equity firm (estimated top 5 involved in infrastructure development), a land development firm (estimated one of largest land owners in North and South Carolina), a construction company, an automotive company, a crypto mining company (estimated largest dogecoin miner in the USA), a data center business (multiple locations in the Carolinas) a private debt business, to name just a few. His businesses are likely responsible for more than four thousand jobs in South Carolina and North Carolina alone, with billions of dollars in economic impact and literally responsible for the building and development of thousands of homes and more than one hundred real estate projects and businesses.
The Carolina’s are the ultimate contradiction in the USA right now. Focusing on maintaining a genteel and affordable lifestyle but yet openly welcoming building, development, job creation and expansion from people like Feingold is quite a contradiction. It is this tightrope of contradictions, welcoming everyone to live in the Carolinas while trying not to ruin the seemingly perfect lifestyle that seems to mend well with Feingold who is also the ultimate contradiction. He is fiercely private about his wealth, although court filings and business filings suggest he is very successful, he has often been seen wearing a thirty-nine dollar Timex watch while negotiating mega deals. That’s a major contradiction. He addresses most everything with a sense of humor, yet he is possibly the most aggressively utilizer of the legal system, another example of a contradiction. He is addicted to giving to charity. In fact, although raised Jewish, Feingold gives to many Christian causes including his old summer camp which was a faith based Christian camp located in North Carolina and run by the YMCA. Another example of a contradiction. Nearly everything about Feingold is a contradiction yet somehow it all seems to work as one cannot argue with his success although his methodologies are far from the standard portrayal of a big business capitalist.
One of the few questions Feingold was willing to answer was his plans for South Carolina. He was quite clear, “I think South Carolina is the single best state for business right now in the USA. I have even bigger plans for the Carolinas, I am in the middle of arguably the largest business deal of my career which just might bring thousands of more jobs to South Carolina. I love the southern sense of hospitality and respect, and the soothing southern accent is simply the deal closer for me. But for those from the Carolinas who are worried, you have my word, the day that I walk down Main Street and start hearing too many Brooklyn accents, is the day that I will know that it is now time to stop.”
Feingold was advised that this article would be running, even without his giving more of an interview than his few humorous lines. To this he responded “ If it is a nice article, then thank you, but if it’s a bad article then F_ck You” another great example of the contradiction.
Reporter Contact: Dan Lavin
NYC Business Journal
1 World Trade Center
NY, NY 10007
[email protected]