{"id":8957,"date":"2020-05-08T09:48:27","date_gmt":"2020-05-08T13:48:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.silverlaw.com\/blog\/?p=8957"},"modified":"2020-07-22T18:20:40","modified_gmt":"2020-07-22T22:20:40","slug":"sec-reveals-florida-marijuana-investment-fraud-firstcanna-fraud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.silverlaw.com\/blog\/sec-reveals-florida-marijuana-investment-fraud-firstcanna-fraud\/","title":{"rendered":"SEC Reveals Another Florida Marijuana Investment Fraud \u2013 \u201cFirstCanna\u201d Fraud"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-8960 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.silverlaw.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Pot4.jpg\" alt=\"On April 21, 2020, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a Complaint for Injunctive and Other Relief (Complaint) against Steven L. Brickner. According to the SEC, Brickner \u201cfalsely represented to prospective investors that he would use their money to purchase the assets of a Colorado-licensed marijuana dispensary network . . .\u201d and ultimately net investors substantial gains through a reverse merger IPO. In reality, Brickner did not own the assets he represented to investors and never filed any necessary documents to complete his promised merger or IPO. Instead, the SEC alleges that from 2015 to 2019, \u201cBrickner misappropriated approximately $3 million of investor money to fund his lavish lifestyle.\u201d According to the SEC\u2019s press release regarding this matter, Brickner had more than 60 victims, most of whom were retail investors. The SEC alleges that Brickner violated various provisions of the federal securities laws. As part of the fraud, the SEC explained that Brickner, a 48-year-old Central Florida resident, operated FirstCanna Pharmaceuticals LLC, FirstCanna Financial LLC, FirstCanna Insurance LLC, and High Country Healing Co. LLC. The SEC Complaint highlights that Brickner\u2019s LinkedIn profile and other background information create a fa\u00e7ade of past success running a series of venture capital, finance, and other commercial companies in the Tampa, Florida area. However, Hillsborough County court records indicate that Brickner and one of Brickner\u2019s prior ventures, VC Financial Management, LLC, were accused of defrauding a Tampa-based tech startup startup in or around 2014.\u00a0 The SEC Complaint also indicates that Brickner filed for bankruptcy in 2016 and did not file a tax return in 2014 \u201cbecause he had no taxable income.\u201d This was far from the successful venture capitalist turned entrepreneur Brickner held himself out to be.\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.silverlaw.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Pot4.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.silverlaw.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Pot4-180x120.jpg 180w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>On April 21, 2020, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a Complaint for Injunctive and Other Relief (Complaint) against Steven L. Brickner. According to the SEC, Brickner <em>\u201cfalsely represented to prospective investors that he would use their money to purchase the assets of a Colorado-licensed marijuana dispensary network . . .\u201d<\/em> and ultimately net investors substantial gains through a reverse merger IPO. In reality, Brickner did not own the assets he represented to investors and never filed any necessary documents to complete his promised merger or IPO. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.silverlaw.com\/blog\/sec-reveals-florida-marijuana-investment-fraud-firstcanna-fraud\/#more-8957\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading \u203a<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On April 21, 2020, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a Complaint for Injunctive and Other Relief (Complaint) against Steven L. Brickner. According to the SEC, Brickner \u201cfalsely represented to prospective investors that he would use their money to purchase the assets of a Colorado-licensed marijuana dispensary network . . .\u201d and ultimately net [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1306,583],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marijuana-investments","category-sec-actions"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>SEC Reveals Florida Marijuana Investment Fraud \u2013 \u201cFirstCanna\u201d Fraud<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The SEC filed a Complaint for Injunctive and Other Relief (Complaint) against Steven L. Brickner for operating the alleged FirstCanna fraud.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.silverlaw.com\/blog\/sec-reveals-florida-marijuana-investment-fraud-firstcanna-fraud\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"SEC Reveals Florida Marijuana Investment Fraud \u2013 \u201cFirstCanna\u201d Fraud\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"The SEC filed a Complaint for Injunctive and Other Relief (Complaint) against Steven L. Brickner for operating the alleged FirstCanna fraud.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.silverlaw.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Pot4.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Silver Law Group\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"SEC Reveals Florida Marijuana Investment Fraud \u2013 \u201cFirstCanna\u201d Fraud","description":"The SEC filed a Complaint for Injunctive and Other Relief (Complaint) against Steven L. 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Brickner for operating the alleged FirstCanna fraud.","twitter_image":"https:\/\/www.silverlaw.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Pot4.jpg","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Silver Law Group","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.silverlaw.com\/blog\/sec-reveals-florida-marijuana-investment-fraud-firstcanna-fraud\/","url":"https:\/\/www.silverlaw.com\/blog\/sec-reveals-florida-marijuana-investment-fraud-firstcanna-fraud\/","name":"SEC Reveals Florida Marijuana Investment Fraud \u2013 \u201cFirstCanna\u201d Fraud","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.silverlaw.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.silverlaw.com\/blog\/sec-reveals-florida-marijuana-investment-fraud-firstcanna-fraud\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.silverlaw.com\/blog\/sec-reveals-florida-marijuana-investment-fraud-firstcanna-fraud\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.silverlaw.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Pot4.jpg","datePublished":"2020-05-08T13:48:27+00:00","dateModified":"2020-07-22T22:20:40+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.silverlaw.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/de64d999508b1ad10d608a99f0d2e752"},"description":"The SEC filed a Complaint for Injunctive and Other Relief (Complaint) against Steven L. 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