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You Already Had all those Sales People
selling Hempmeds products and thousands (plural) is almost certainly an over statement. The only thing the doubling of shares in circulation is buying is Kannaway's corporate earnings which were about $420K last year and may well be less than that in 2015.
MJNA were Foolish to Add Project CBD
to their sham of a lawsuit. Not only does it shift the burden of proof but Project CBD is well regarded in the marijuana activist community. As a mater of law MJNA needs to prove not only that what Project CBD published was false and injurious but also that Project CBD knew (or should have known) it was false and published it anyway. As a matter of publicity MJNA was already viewed with a certain degree of loathing by large parts of the pro pot movement, using a lawsuit to harass Project CBD will only make that worse.
Det
At one point you gave me a gmail addy for you, I sent you a link to the complaint last night.
It Might Make a Difference
First I agree that the suit will most likely be settled out of court, Llamas and Sides would be idiots not to do so. The causes of action read like a road map for a potential securities fraud investigation. Make no mistake, this IS a civil action but for Llamas/Sides to prevail in court they would functionally need to disprove what would amount to allegations of criminal activity. And the exhibits to the complaint provide documentation of the claims.
As to the suit "making a difference," I don't believe it will change much but the amount of the settlement could potentially prove significant. The amount will not likely be made public but a ball park guess would be in the area of the current value of 60 million MJNA shares circa 2011 adjusted for dilution, court costs, legal fees and a healthy amount of "pay you to walk away" money.
Oh, and in that oh so rare lawsuit, you know, the one where MJNA is actually the plaintiff, that's another reason why the Tobias suit will likely be settled quietly. Even if MJNA prevails in their suit against Cranford et al the question becomes damages. MJNA seems to want to pretend that the ONLY reason their sales numbers and stock prices are down is because of "those guys." Revealing first hand information about MJNA/Llamas' business practices would point a rather strong finger at them as being the source of their own problems.
Sorry that I Don't Have Time ATM
But I believe Tobias was on the board pre merger but not afterwards. After he and Martin served in more of an advisory role and were not board member or company officers. I do not see any way for their complaint to incriminate them. But incriminate is a very good word to reserve for future use in this discussion.
I will get back to you Doc.
It Would But Don't Get Your Hopes Up.
Both Tobias and Martin Were
part of Perlowin's MJNA. But from an old PR:
SAN DIEGO, CA--(Marketwire - Apr 8, 2011) - Medical Marijuana, Inc. in association with CannaBANKâ„¢ is proud to announce the appointment of the Medical Marijuana, Inc. Board of Directors (members to be announced April 15, 2011) to oversee day-to-day operations, the formation of the CannaBANK Advisory Team to supervise and resolve issues related to compliance and facility management and a new management team ensuring continued smooth operations during this transitional period.Medical Marijuana, Inc. would also like to pay homage to visionary founder and pioneer Ex-Chairman Bruce Perlowin. Mr. Perlowin, together with Ex-President Donald Steinberg were instrumental in creating the first US publicly traded company in the medical marijuana industry. David Tobias and William Martin, former board members remain as members of the transition team. "Passing the baton to the next generation of talented young entrepreneurs gives me the greatest hope and confidence in the future of Medical Marijuana, Inc.," Bruce Perlowin stated. Additionally, Medical Marijuana, Inc. is in the process of becoming a fully-reporting company, leading to an upgraded listing of the company on the OTC Pink Sheets to OTC:QB. Medical Marijuana, Inc. has established a new investor relations team to address shareholder inquiries, making the process more fluid and transparent.
Sorry Bro
San Diego County wants $12.33 just for the complaint, I'm not quite that curious. But there is a second plaintiff, a William Martin and HDDC is a defendant as well.
What Venue?
What court is the suit filed in?
Stuart Titus
Who would the CEO be?
Chris Christie Vows to Crackdown on Marijuana
in the unlikely event the American public is stupid enough to elect him President [Link]. I'm sorry but isn't this country facing enough legitimate problems that so better deserve the attention of our potential chief executive than the continued war on a plant?
My best guess is Christie pulled out one of the fingers he has stuck up his ass, put it in the air and decided that anti-pot republicans were an under served potion of his potential electorate who need to be spoken for and he's the guy to do it for them.
I'm not into politics. I try to stay informed and I vote but when I look at how much good gets done the party I like oh so very little better than the other party I find it really hard to look at it as anything other than voting for the folks I dislike least. That being said, if you're reading a pot stock board I do hope we can agree that no matter what a-hole you vote for it will not be an anti pot a-hole.
Not a Positive Barometer
But I'll reserve judgment until we see what he's become CEO of.
If Kannaway wasn't being sold by the principles of a publicly traded company to the publicly traded company they are principles of, Kannaway would be a "last person out the door please shut off the lights" situation. But Llamas and Titus are gifting themselves the better part of 100 million dollars worth of MJNA stock for selling Kannaway to MJNA shareholders so they need to pretend Kannaway isn't nearly as worthless as it is.
I've watched a good number of MLM startups. I think it's pretty much impossible to launch a MLM company that derives a significant percentage of income from actual customers in it's first six months or so, almost all the early revenue will come from BizOp seekers. The next half of the first year is where things get interesting. Either the company has a product or service which drives consumer demand or they'll trot out a dog and pony show of vapid hype and comp plan changes. All of the latter isn't aimed at attracting customers but rather retaining the type of MLMers who are going to be flogging a MLM company for no other reason than that is what those people do and are willing to pay a monthly autoship for the privilege of doing so.
Kannaway never graduated from the "one affiliate selling the dream of an income opportunity to new affiliates" stage to the point where they sell actual products to actual customers. That right there is what potential MJNA investors need to know. The Q4:14 numbers when announced will be worse than the Q3:14 numbers which were worse than the, ya'll get the picture.
Seth Fraser has a track record of running other than actual MLM opportunities into the ground and moving on, Kannaway is just another failure he's milked till even he couldn't pay his rent pimping it. It almost doesn't matter what he's moving on to other than he thinks it's better than Kannaway which I have a hard time disagreeing with. We're not talking about a particularly high bar here.
Maybe the 42% Increase
in Kannaway's sales were over the same period in the previous year.
It is somewhat difficult to get accurate information on MLM company sales, very few are publicly traded and MLM is the very definition of a "fake it till you make it" industry. The closest thing we have to any sort of real numbers on Kannaway come from the laughable Houlihan Capital fairness opinion. First off the document makes it clear that all the numbers contained in it were provided by Kannaway/MJNA and that Houlihan made no effort on their part to audit or authenticate them and even still, the numbers are far from good.
Page 25 lists $420,720 as the 2014 EBITDA (420 Yay). Page 15 has an incomplete monthly income statement which indicates that Kannaway has been bleeding money since July. That chart doesn't include the months of November or December but when you add up the revenue numbers Kannaway seems to have lost about $40K more by year end.
The only substantial point mentioned in the report that could even begin to justify it's irrational exuberance was that "two individuals" were being added to the Kannaway sales team who were expected to bring with them a "combined sales network of approximately 85,000 people." I know who one of those "individuals" is, Robert Dean and a bunch of years ago he was a very heavy hitter but he's gone on a serial MLM ship jumping spree that has destroyed almost all of his credibility and sales network. He has also been almost completely absent from Kannaway's promotional media which is pretty much the exact opposite of what would be happening if he was performing as expected.
One last note, we don't know the actual supply chain details here, did Kannaway buy raw materials from HempMeds and formulate their own products or did MJNA sell them finished products for retail? More of an accounting issue than anything at this point but if it's the latter it means that most of the profits to be realized were already on MJNA/HepMeds balance sheet and the Kannaway purchase will add very little, if any additional profits to MJNA's share holders.
They Seem to be Selling
backlogged inventory purchased from Cannavest before their mutual relationship became thermonuclear and ~rumor~ has it that not all that inventory has been or is likely to be be paid for. Who MJNA will buy their CBD from after they run out of their Cannevest stock is anyone's guess because MJNA doesn't feel the need to tell their share (bag) holders things like that.
I Don't Care What the Terms Are
Micheal Llamas, former president and still major share holder of MJNA and Stewart Titus, new MJNA CEO own a crappy little near failed MLM company which in addition to declining revenues also faces potential civil penalties in a trademark lawsuit. They told Houlihan Capital it was worth significantly more than 80 million dollars and Houlihan Capital wrote a report that said, based on what we were told Kannaway is worth significantly more than 80 million dollars.
Now, Llamas and Titus are selling Kannaway to MJNA for 80 million dollars worth of MJNA stock at a 25% discount (to the share, not company price). This will double the O/S and will do so in exchange for a company who, even by what Houlihan Capital was told, netted less than a half a million bucks last year.
Only two (possibly three if M.S. is being cut in) of MJNA's shareholders will benefit from this deal, the rest wont.
The Kannaway Purchase Alone
will add nearly a billion to the O/S but I doubt that will be listed in the 10K as the sale isn't yet final. But when it is, Llamas and Titus will say Thank You !!! to all the MJNA bag holders.
I Agree
It would have saved them a nasty court battle and a boatload of money. But that isn't the MJNA way.
Thanks for the Update
I look forward to seeing the document posted. No surprise that the injunction was granted, ownership of the trademark is a valid question before the court. I'm a little surprised at the bond amount, $1.2M but it's a far cry from the $30M Llamas et al were asking for. Looks like KWay still has a little work to do in cleaning up some Cannabis Beauty Defined references on their public pages.
I'm not on the affiliate email list but so far there has been no public announcement oh the "Defined Transformation" product launch, only that it's on sale for 40% off. The main Kannaway public facebook page draws fewer than 200 visitor interactions a week and their members groups are pretty much dead at this point. They announced some sort of meet and greet meeting in Vegas this Saturday, "hey, come to Vegas tomorrow," how many people do they expect to show up? But at least Robert dean is supposed to be there, he's they guy Kannaway told Houlihan Capital was going to bring in 85,000 new Brand Ambassadors when he joined the company near the end of last year. He's been basically invisible since then and my best guess, brought about 84K+ fewer affiliates with him than Houlihan based their completely absurd valuations upon.
But MJNA's board of directors is still more than happy to give Micheal Llamas (and Stewart Titus) 80+ million dollars worth of stock in exchange for the MLM equivalent of the Monty Python Parrot sketch.
I Couldn't Agree More
Matt Trainer and Team WUKAR are a cancer on legitimate MLM and on a scheme like Dubli as well. Speaking of which.,.. CQ, the post you made just prior to the one I'm replying to:
It's articles like this that have me excited for FY14 Fins
http://newswire.net/newsroom/pr/00086096-http-www-dubli-com-t0au21kc.html
Someone Check My Math Here
Sorry, it's 2:45am here (insomnia sucks) but from today's pre14a:
Issues of note, the number of issued shares (1,510,950,321), now the Q3:14 10Q listed the OS as 1,298,537,547. So between the end of Q3 and today NPHC issued 212,412,774 shares.
Current authorized but unissued: 489,049,679 divided by 212,412,774 = 2.3
2.3 !!!
Is it possible that without this reverse split (of issued and outstanding but NOT authorized shares) Rik could run out of shares to paper over his losses with before the end of this year?
Cannavest v Kannaway Lawsuit Update
I didn't have time previously to give this the attention this deserves but things have gotten uglier between MJNA and the company that produces every single drop of award winning CBD Rich Hemp Oilâ„¢ MJNA has ever sold.
To back up for a bit, here is Cannavest's First Amended Complaint against Kannaway/Micheal Llamas/General Hemp/HDDC:
CNAV v Kannaway FAC
Here is Kannaway/Micheal Llamas/General Hemp/HDDC's motion to dismiss:
Mot to Dismiss
And the court's dismissal of the above:
Motion Denied
OK, that brings us up to this week where there was something of a flurry of filings. Perhaps the most interesting is Kannaway/Llamas et al's Counterclaim against Cannavest:
Counterclaim
In which we learn that Micheals Llamas and Mona used to be the very bestest of friends, Mona is Llamas' only child's GodFather which is appropriate because Mona is a violent man who hangs out with organized crime figures (presumably besides Llamas). Llamas is claiming the transfer of the Cannabis Beauty Defined trademark was done under threat and duress and that Mona didn't even pay him the dollar he was promised:
I find it interesting that Llamas states that if Cannavest stops selling MJNA hemp oil they'll go out of business in a counterclaim in a lawsuit against Cannavest. Yea, that's a real healthy business relationship right there.
Mona the Second is a Badd Mann.â„¢ If the victims of Llamas' (alleged) frauds will cry him a river over the abuse he's suffered is not yet known. I can't speak the the factual basis of the counterclaim, that's for a court to decide but it looks very much like MJNA needs to find someone else to sell them Hemp Oil if they haven't already.
Next we have the Declaration of Michelle Sides in which we find out that she is a "Principle" in Kannaway and that Kannaway is worth like eleventy billion dollars (my exaggeration is smaller than hers). The best laugh line (and there is competition for the title) is that if the Cannabis Beauty Defined trademark isn't returned Kannaway's value will be diminished and that Micheal llamas may no longer be willing to let MJNA shareholders pay him for it. Also of note, Michelle claims Kannaway's Cannabis Beauty Defined products are selling like hotcakes but she also claims they have almost six months worth of inventory sitting on a shelf somewhere.
The following is an exhibit in support of Michelle's declaration [Link] The fact that a document like this, not only completely unaudited but also horribly formatted is being submitted to the court should be less than encouraging for the MJNA faithful but it's contents, in so far as they can be discerned and credited are less encouraging still. It purports to be an accounting of all Cannibis Beauty Defined product sales to the 16th of this month.
Some people have doubted me when I've tried to convey just how few tumble weeds are left in Kannaway's ghost town but now i have some sales numbers to back me up. MJNA is claiming (or pretending) to have sold $3.6 million in Cannabis Beauty Defined products to date but look at their holiday sales results:
Again the formatting sucks, blame Michelle not me. "Green Friday" was Kannaway's post Thanksgiving "Black Friday" event and were offering deep discounts on a product pack at a $199 retail price point and at almost $1.5K in total sales they really didn't blow the doors off but in fairness that came right on the heels of the Thanksgiving day sale when they sold 24 bottles of salve. I can't find the retail price point for the special "Holiday Packs" but from early November when they went on sale up to Christmas they sold $4.4K in "For Her" packs and $0 "For Him" (and I thought they were going to have a hard time selling expensive face cream to guys). These were their special holiday promotions in addition to their normal product sales and please be clear that all of their holiday sales combined for a little bit less than nine grand (!!!!!).
Next up we have the Houlihan Capitol's Strictly Private and Confidential don't show this to anyone or they'll know what a joke it is and don't forget you can file documents to the court under seal "Fairness Opinion" . They do make it clear however what information they were relying on the make their determination:
Of course Cannavest has responded to the above [Link] The issue being argued is amount of bond to be posted by Cannavest to compensate Kannaway in the event a preliminary injunction is granted and they were later to lose the lawsuit. CANV (big surprise) disputes Kannaway's facts and figures, Kannaway asks for a $30 million dollar bond, Cannavest suggests ten grand.
Some interesting reading, a few declarations supporting Cannavest's arguments:
Joseph Dowling
Phillip Samouris
Objections the Michelle's evidence
This, all of this is a very messy public divorce between two rather seedy companies and it's getting into scorched earth territory. MJNA is and will be spending a lot of time and money prosecuting and defending this and it's other lawsuits. As important until MJNA discloses they they found someone else to sell them CBD oil please remember they are trying to destroy the company who is trying to destroy them (and who sells them CBD oil).
Last but certianly not least Micheal Llamas/General Hemp is trying to sell Kannaway to MJNA's shareholders (bag holders?) for $80 million dollars in sock (common shares sold at a 25% discount). Kannaway isn't worth ANYTHING near that amount but Llamas has his frauud trial next month and may need money. Also, if Cannavest prevails in the trademark suit Llamas would be on the hook for perhaps half of the judgement, unless he can get MJNA to buy Kannaway from him first.
WakeUpNow Officially Closes it's US Sales Network
With that said, effective immediately, WakeUpNow will cease all network marketing operations in the United States. We will continue to sell our products, including Awaken Thunder and the WUN Fit line of products. We will diligently work to fulfill all financial obligations of the company. I will continue to work with the creditors and vendors in anticipation of getting all obligations resolved.
It goes without saying that our hearts are heavy over this decision. It wasn’t taken lightly, and it wasn’t done without understanding the impact on the lives of so many people that worked with us.
That's Great News, Call MJNA's Lawyers
and get the Cannavest lawsuit thrown out on a technicality. Because they obviously must be wrong when they claimed:
(Link to the full document)
Get on the phone Doc, if Llamas doesn't really own or control HDDC and General Hemp you can save Kannaway/MJNA/Llamas a BOATLOAD of money. I'm kinda surprised Llamas' attorneys didn't raise this issue in their motion to dismiss which was denied by the by.
And aren't you and every other MJNA shareholder just THRILLED that the sale of Kannaway to MJNA will be finial BEFORE any potential judgement needs to be paid out?
Actually no he isn't. Says on his linkedin page that he was president not CEO of HDDC and hasn't been since 2011. No where does it say he was ever CEO of anything. It says he is President of Cannabank, which now appears to be a subsidiary of General Hemp LLC in which Stuart Titus is the sole member. It seems like Titus is calling the shots, not Llamas.
WakeUpNow Files Suit Against Former CEO Kirby Cochran
behindmlm.com/companies/that-free-thing/wakeupnow-file-70-million-lawsuit-against-kirby-cochran/
It Might Be Over
WakeUpNow is losing many affiliates, including their master Distributor and top income earner. Reason? They haven't been paid in months:
businessforhome.org/2015/02/wake-up-now-going-out-of-business/
No word from corporate leadership (no surprise there) but US operations are dead in the water and there wouldn't appear to be enough money to fund over seas expansion.
behindmlm.com/companies/that-free-thing/wakeupnow-filing-for-bankruptcy-done-in-the-us/
Possible Motive for the Sale of Kannaway?
Last week the court ruled on Kannaway/General Hemp/HDDC's motion to dismiss. It was denied. Kannway et al now have till the 20th of this month to file a response to Cannavest's complaint. We can also expect a ruling on Cannavest's request for a preliminary injunction sometime soon.
As things stood Kannaway had been owned by General Hemp and HDDC and any potential fines and penalties that may be imposed in this suit would have been the responsibility of those two entities. HDDC is basically Micheal Llamas and General Hemp is pretty much 50% Micheal Llamas. MJNA however is only about 32% HDDC so if Kannaway is sold to MJNA before the verdict comes down Micheal Llamas effectively off loads 60+% of any fines and penalties onto MJNA's shareholders (other than him).
Cannavest is claiming no less than $500,000 in direct damages so far and in an ongoing basis. they also ask for penalties, fees and costs. And all of that is in addition to what Kannaway/G.H. and HDDC's legal defense is costing them. Before this is all said and done we very well can be talking 7 figures here. And thanks to the largess of MJNA's shareholders Micheal Llamas might only be on the hook for less than a third of that.
Ever Seen Someone Hook a Fish
haul it into a boat but not club it? The fish flops a lot at first but slows down till it just sorta gasps with it's gills splayed out as it suffocates. Clubbing the fish is actually a mercy but MLM isn't merciful.
Kannaway has, in that message, admitted they can not survive by selling HempMeds products at a steep markup. Almost nobody outside the company was buying the products and when Almost all of your product sales are to your own affiliate Almost all of your affiliates are losing money. This causes a lot of affiliates to quit and Kannaway's affiliate base has been shrinking steadily pretty much since they launched.
‘Kway Care‘ is a 3rd party telemed subscription service. I don't know who the provider is, some of them are OK some of them are not BUT if you find out who the provider is the odds are excellent that you can get the exact same service cheaper if you deal with that company directly. After all, Kannaway is just reselling the service and charging more to pay sales commissions on several levels.
'Lifestyle Rewards' is a 3rd party discounts subscription service and everything above applies here as well.
The point is Kannaway wouldn't be tacking on tacky 3rd party services to their product catalog that have nothing to do with their "CBD Hemp" vision if they were selling enough "CBD Hemp."
And don't get me started on "Kway University," Google "amway tools scam." The majority of Kannaway "Brand Ambassadors" don't make $79 a month and many wont make $79 a year but when Kannaway paid Robert Dean to join the company this was part of his deal. They set up a subscription website to charge KWay affiliates $79/year to hear Robert Dean's motivational speeches and the KWay uplines will force this down their recruits throats because they will get a piece of that money. This is just (yet another) way bad MLM companies bleed their lower level affiliates to death.
Remember that fish?
Kannaway, Trying to Fake it to Make it.
The alleged valuation is not based on reality. Leave alone that Llamas is pretty much selling the company to himself. There were about 200 people in attendance at last weeks Dallas event, significantly less than attended their last major dog and pony show in Atlanta last year. Yet, they are going to add the monthly expense of a "satellite office" in that city for little other than the PR value of doing so.
Again Kannaway is very facebook centric, as are many newer MLMs, it's a primary advertising/ recruiting/ marketing venue. Their main "members only" page has been stalled at a bit better thank 1.2K members for months and averages just a few comments a day. Facebook no longer displays the PTAT "people talking about this" numbers for pages but they still track it and Google's results summery lists it:
"113 talking about this." Now that isn't their private page, that is the main public page, the one that affiliates should be "sharing" from so Kannaway stories will appear in any their friends news feeds (which is a good reason not to be "friends" with active MLMer's on facebook). PTAT is a 7 day average of the number of people who interact with a given page, if you like, share, comment on anything on the page you are added to the "talking about this" number. So, on average 113 people interact with Kannaway's main public facebook page in a week. Here's a link to the company YouTube video list, take a look at the total view numbers, not exactly popular.
And remember when Kannaway used to brag about their Alexa numbers? Yea, it has been a while. Here's why:
We know for a fact that Kannaway's sales numbers fell from Q2 to Q3, we know for a fact that their social engagement numbers have fallen even further since then. Yet MJNA issues a press release claiming Kannaway may well be worth upwards of 200 million. And it's not like they've never told porky pies in their press releases before.
Can't Wait to see How this
will be accounted for on their balance sheets. Not that MJNA is ever all that honest or accurate in their disclosures. But Llamas goes from being part owner of Kannaway through his part ownership of General Hemp to being part owner of Kannaway through his majority share holder position in MJNA. And in the process MJNA "pays" General Hemp (Llamas and Titus) a reported $119.6-242.7 million USD.
If any actual value (cash) is transferred here who's hands does it end up in? And who's hands does it come out of? Sounds like Llamas just sold MJNA's shareholders his failing MLM company (only he still kinda owns it).
Go MJNA !!!
Again.,.....
So to be clear. It is not factually correct to say that accused fraudster Michael Llamas is the CEO of MJNA. He holds (directly and indirectly) more shares of MJNA than anyone else and therefore has more control over the company than anyone else but he did in fact step down from his CEO position and that position is currently vacant. But he is still not in fact the CEO of MJNA.
He's the de facto CEO:
de facto
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
De facto (/d? 'fækto?/, /de?-/,[1] Latin: [de? 'fakto?]) is a Latin expression that means "concerning fact". In law, it often means "in practice but not necessarily ordained by law" or "in practice or actuality, but not officially established". It is commonly used in contrast to de jure (which means "concerning the law") when referring to matters of law, governance, or technique (such as standards) that are found in the common experience as created or developed without or contrary to a regulation. When discussing a legal situation, de jure designates what the law says, while de facto designates action of what happens in practice.
On this We Can Agree
The "MJNA CEO MICHAEL LLAMAS IS GOING TO JAIL!!!" posts are technical incorrect. The De Facto CEO of MJNA is most likely going to jail. Now THAT is correct.
And if you don't see how a man who very well may be found guilty of defrauding people out of money and who is holding a controlling interest in a publicly traded company is not of interest to people considering investing in that company then, well I'm just going to respectfully disagree with you there.
Him Stepping Down is in No Way
proof that he isn't involved in the day to day running of the company. He could still be in the office every day (his is the same office MJNA uses) and there is no one holding the CEO position in MJNA to countermand any orders he may or may not be giving. He still owns more shares of the company than ANYONE else after all. There is ZERO proof anywhere that he isn't calling the shots.
And you're right, he might be great at running the company. Except you have no evidence that this is true, in fact quite a lot to the contrary. From the Dixxy deal blowing up to the Cannavest deal blowing up and on to the Roen lawsuit, whoever the hell is running MJNA is really screwing the pooch.
This is America and Llamas has not yet had his day in court. He is not guilty of anything yet. But several of his co-conspirators have already plead guilty and the publicly available information doesn't paint a very pretty picture for him. People were ripped off, their hard earned money was stolen and the de facto CEO of MJNA may very well have played an instrumental roll in making that happen.
I can't blame the longs for trying to sweep this under any rug they can find, I mean just think about it. They can't argue that anyone else has more authority in MJNA than a man who is being tried for financial fraud. All they can do is try to pretend it doesn't matter.
Umm,....
Who owns more shares of MJNA (through HDCC) than ANYONE on the planet?
Who shares a mailing address (through HDCC) with MJNA?
Who has employed Michelle Sides through one company or another for the better part of a decade?
If the answer to all of the above were Michel Llamas would you admit that just MIGHT be evidence he is still involved in MJNA?
No, I didn't think so.
Not the CBD Source
First off, the photo in the story you linked to is not of a product MJNA produces, they used to have an exclusive marketing relationship with the product manufacturer but now are suing/being sued by them.
Second, the product in the photo is not mentioned anywhere in your article, GW Pharmaceutical's Epidiolex is. And unlike RSHO, MJNA doesn't even pretend to produce that.
So how exactly does that article in anyway support your "firstest with the most" characterization?
How the Mighty Have Fallen
Robert Dean spent the better part of 8 years in one MLM company and became an "industry legend." I don't mean to understate his success, he made several million and recruited a very large organization. He branded and marketed his T.O.P.G.U.N. Team so that he was selling motivational training materials not only to his own downlines but to MLM'ers outside his company. Dude was bankable.
Then in 2008 or 2009 he left the company he had such success with and moved as many of his followers and fans to another MLM company. Memory fades with time but I recall one of his boasts was that the group he brought into the new company were responsible for $70K in product sales in their first 24 hours. Numbers like that get noticed in the industry.
Since 2009 Robert L. Dean, Jr. has jumped from one company to another like a drunken sailor in a whore house. I'm not his personal biographer but credible sources place the total number of MLM companies he's repped for between 12 and 14. Compare that to one company from about 2001 to 2009.
MLM companies will pay for field leaders. The deals are almost always cut in private and they are not always all that ethical. Paying cash to make someone jump and more cash for the number of people they can bring with them is sorta industry standard. But sometimes other inducements are offered, advantages and preferential treatment which put the rest of the affiliate force at a (further) disadvantage. It is impossible to know the terms of the deal that brought Robert Dean to Kannaway. We do know some sort of new "training center" is being opened for Kannaway reps in Robert's home city. These training will almost certanly not be free.
When Robert jumped from his first company to his second in 2009 he made a very big splash. Each and every jump after that one has been a bit smaller. Lets assume Kannaway is only his 11th new company since 2009, not only is his following smaller, but the profile of the companies he's getting bought by is declining as well. His (current) last company was TalkFusion, their primary product is video emails. That might have been worth something before everyone in the world could imbed a YouTube vid in an email and most of TalkFusion's affiliate growth is not in the USA, Canada or Europe. Folks, TalkFusion is a piss poor pathetic company but last April, Robert took their money and told as many people as would listen to him that TalkFusion is the next big thing. Today, Robert is taking Kannaway's money and telling people it is the next big thing. 8 months from now we can see what will become Roberts next big thing.
Oh, and for no fewer than the second time Kannaway is getting kicked to the curb by their merchant processing. ADP TotalPay is cutting them off and it isn't a "mutual agreement." I've seen enough videos like that before to read between the lines and despite what Jeff Rodgers claims, ADP (and the issuing bank) has not decided not to "support our industry" which would imply not doing business with MLMs, Kannaway's issuing bank is cutting ties with Kannaway in particular. The number one way to lose merchant processing is chargebacks, MLMs (young ones in particular) are considered high risk to begin with and if chargebacks get over 1 or 2% it's time to look offshore for debit and credit services. But hey, that let's Jeff pretend this is all part on their plans for international expansion.
Wake Up Now on NPR
The National Public radio program This American Life ran an expose on Wake Up Now. I found the coverage fairly balanced and well sourced. They did a good job of capturing the corporate culture and the odds of making any real money in the opportunity (about 1%). I wouldn't call this a "hit piece" but any honest investigation of the Wake Up Now MLM can not help but to be less than flattering.
[Link to the podcast.]
Right in the Title
FDA Approved Cannabis-Based Drug Development Fuels Discussions Regarding NFL Players, Concussions, and CTE