March 23, 2025

Martin Sumichrast at Adara Acquisition Corp

A $115 million NYSE IPO and a $600 million acquisition — plus the Stone Street wind-down that preceded it.

Adara Acquisition Corp

Martin Sumichrast was Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Adara Acquisition Corp, and served on its board of directors from the company’s formation. He was also Manager of its sponsor, Adara Sponsor, LLC, from its formation in August 2020.

Martin Sumichrast completed Adara’s initial public offering on the NYSE in February 2022, raising over $115,000,000 in equity capital. In June 2023, Adara acquired Alliance Entertainment in a $600,000,000 transaction.

Stone Street Capital

From 2013 until July 2020, Martin Sumichrast served as Managing Member of Stone Street Capital, a Charlotte, North Carolina–based private equity firm. He was responsible for the growth of the business — and then for the wind-down of its operations after the firm was devastated by the Siskey Ponzi scheme, returning millions of dollars in assets to investors.

Following the collapse, Martin Sumichrast was sued by the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission. The matter was resolved, and he remains in good standing with regulatory bodies. That period — the fraud, the investigation, the litigation, and the aftermath — is the subject of his forthcoming book, Getting Sheared, co-authored with 13-time bestselling author Don Yaeger and award-winning investigative journalist Jason Cole.