Over 22 months, Premier LBX Group paid UCEA Capital Partners Ltd of London approximately $34,600 in fees. UCEA signed a term sheet for up to $5,000,000, then a SAFE note for $100,000 — executed by its own Chairman. Its Chairman publicly announced the investment on LinkedIn. Not one dollar has ever been transferred.
This page exists so that the next founder who is asked for an upfront fee can read the record first. Every claim below is tied to a dated email or an executed contract.
Last updated 5 August 2026. Corrections: see below.
In September 2024, UCEA Capital Partners — presenting itself as a London family investment office with a network of 430 families — approached Premier LBX Group, a Delaware company building an immersive entertainment venue in Arizona.
UCEA's offer was a two-part fee: £25,000 up front, which it said would buy a shortlist of the 30–35 families best aligned with the opportunity plus active introductions at private investor sessions, and a 3% success fee on capital raised. Premier LBX paid the upfront fee in February 2025, plus a further $6,600 when UCEA said the dollars sent did not cover the pounds invoiced.
No named family-office introduction ever materialised. Instead UCEA began proposing to invest its own money. In June 2025 its Chief Investment Officer signed a term sheet for up to $5,000,000, closing on or before 31 July 2025. That closing passed. In September 2025 the deal was rewritten at $200,000 — of which UCEA's own money was $100,000 and the other $100,000 was to be raised by Premier LBX itself — closing no later than 30 October 2025. That closing passed too.
In early November 2025, UCEA's Chairman signed a SAFE note for $100,000. Two hours after the document went to him for signature — and two days before he signed it — UCEA's finance team invoiced Premier LBX for its 3% success fee on that same, still-unfunded investment. When Premier LBX asked to see the signed SAFE first, UCEA's Chief Investment Officer replied: "Inverse order please. Proof of payment first then we will send signed SAFE note." Premier LBX paid. Four days later, that same executive wrote to a colleague: "please locate signed SAFE, I cannot find it in the file."
Since then: an Investment Committee, a Treasury department in Lisbon, a letter from the Chairman, a team restructure, an extraordinary Board meeting, and a Principal away on family matters. No wire date has ever been given.
Every entry expands to the underlying quotation and the document it came from. Quotations are verbatim. Where something is referenced in correspondence but the underlying document is not in the file, it is marked as such.
None of these is proof of bad faith on its own. Together, they describe a shape. If you recognise three or more of them in a conversation you are currently having, slow down and get the arrangement in front of a lawyer before you send any money.
A genuine investor is paid out of the upside, not out of your bank account. Any party that needs a five-figure sum from a pre-revenue company before introducing anyone has already been paid whether or not it performs.
Here: £25,000 due within three days of signature, with the deliverable — a shortlist and introductions — arriving after.
Watch which obligations get chased and which get explained. A counterparty that sends five collection emails in seventeen days for a $3,000 receivable, and then cannot produce a date for a $100,000 payable in nine months, has told you exactly what it is.
Here: chased on 4, 10, 14, 18 and 20 November 2025 for the fee. Never once volunteered a wire date for the investment.
If the person selling you the deal makes a concession in writing and someone in accounts contradicts it days later, the concession was never real. Get commitments from whoever can actually keep them, and treat the reversal as the true position.
Here: "no payments required until the end of the month" (15 Jan 2025) was followed by an invoice due the 22nd (16 Jan) and "we cannot proceed with onboarding without cleared funds" (21 Jan).
Investor sessions and demo days are the product you are buying. If the date slides and nobody acknowledges the slide, note it in writing each time — a pattern only becomes visible if you keep the count.
Here: Dubai 28 Nov 2024 and London 6 Dec 2024 were promised in October 2024 and never referenced again.
A number that falls from $5,000,000 to $100,000 across two signed term sheets is not a negotiation, it is a retreat conducted at the speed of paperwork. Each new document resets the clock and buys another quarter.
Here: up to $5,000,000 (11 Jun 2025) → $200,000 total, UCEA's share $100,000 (16 Sep 2025). Half the smaller round was to be raised by Premier LBX.
If a term sheet signed by the Chief Investment Officer is later described as subject to an Investment Committee approval that has not happened, the signature meant nothing. Ask before signing: who else has to approve this, and what happens if they don't?
Here: term sheet signed by the CIO on 11 June 2025; on 17 July, note documentation "would come post an IC approval."
Being asked to pay a fee in order to receive the contract that evidences the obligation to pay you is a straightforward inversion. It is also the clearest single signal in this entire record.
Here, verbatim, from UCEA's Chief Investment Officer on 6 Nov 2025: "Inverse order please. Proof of payment first then we will send signed SAFE note."
A funder that publicises a round before wiring gets the reputational benefit of your company at no cost. Before agreeing to any announcement, require the funds to have landed — and check whether your agreement already restricts use of your name.
Here: UCEA's Chairman announced backing a "$25 million Series A round" while having transferred $0 against a $100,000 commitment that was already past due.
On 2 July 2026, UCEA's Chief Investment Officer wrote that an extraordinary Board meeting had been convened to consider "the outstanding subscribed but not yet deployed investments, including your subscription." The plural is UCEA's own. If you are one of the others — or if you were pitched and walked away — the record is more useful with your account in it.
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