Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft’s Securities Division ordered David Gentile, Jeffry Schneider, Jeffrey Lash and their companies to show cause why restitution of more than $24 million should not be paid after allegedly defrauding 255 Missouri investors and tens of thousands more across the U.S. A news release says the division alleges that between 2013 and 2018, Gentile, Schneider and Lash raised more than $1.8 billion by luring individuals to invest with misleading promises of reliable returns. The three men and their companies – GPB Capital Holdings LLC, Ascendant Capital LLC and Ascendant Alternative Strategies LLC – relied on a Ponzi-style scheme for financing, using new investors’ capital to pay returns to prior investors.