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March 9, 2017

Posted  April 5, 2017

California-based marijuana “consulting” company Medbox and its founder Vincent Mehdizadeh will pay $12 million to settle allegations of falsely touting “record” revenue numbers to investors and claiming to be a “leader” in the marijuana industry while some of the company’s earnings came from sham transactions with a secret affiliate.  According to the SEC’s complaint, Medbox claimed to sell vending machines capable of dispensing marijuana on the basis of biometric identification.  The SEC alleges that Mehdizadeh created a shell company called New-Age Investment Consulting, installed his then-fiancé, Yocelin Legaspi, as its CEO, and caused it to carry out illegal stock sales and used the proceeds from those sales to boost Medbox’s revenue.  Medbox allegedly issued press releases headlining the phony revenues as record earnings to legitimize itself as a viable commercial operation when in fact nearly 90 percent of the company’s revenue in the first quarter of 2014 stemmed from sham transactions with New-Age.  The SEC also charged Medbox’s then-CEO Bruce Bednick with being complicit in the scheme and personally profiting.  The SEC also charged New-Age and Legaspi with unlawfully selling unregistered securities.  The SEC’s litigation against Bedrick, Legaspi, and New-Age continues. SEC

Tagged in: Misrepresentations, Regulatory Violations, Securities Fraud,