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Couldn't agree more.
Somehow they managed to get the Level Brands LEVB stock board scrubbed, but there's still more than enough info out there for anyone who really wants to research this deal and see where investor capital went.
It's truly a head-scratcher that the SEC has not jumped all over this CEO and his endless stream of P&D deals.
All this new co-CEO drivel seems designed to create another layer of smoke and mirrors.
The history goes back decades:
http://sharesleuth.com/investigations/2008/07/history_and_mystery
Not a shocker.
Read this blog for a clearer understanding of what happened within this entity, and why the ticker change and thorough scrubbing of as much Level Brands negative press was necessary:
https://ipojournalist.wordpress.com/
Anyone serious about investing in this company needs to do two three things:
1. Read the corporate filings to see where investor capital is flowing.
2. Read the corporate filings for Level Brands, the same entity before they changed names and business model, after hyping their kathy ireland relationship and all their marketing deals while systematically extracting stock and investor capital to multiple questionable entities
3. Read this investigative blog to tie it all together:
https://ipojournalist.wordpress.com/
Doesn't it seem strange that a company and CEO that claimed they had such broad market reach and strategies is suddenly a one trick CDB pony?
Looks like all the original details on this P&D were scrubbed from the boards, and the fact that the outcome was exactly as predicted.
Fortunately external blogs still exist that cover the history of this company and its executives.
Same company, now just a different name:
https://ipojournalist.wordpress.com/
More investigative research keeps piling up on this company, none of it looks very good.
Level Brands Investigative Blog
At least one astute Twitter user (@LevbScam) has noted that CEO Martin Sumichrast has taken to SEO stuffing, creating pages that include the terms "Martin" "Sumichrast" "Investigation" to try and bury search results, by creating lame blogs about boats and other nonsense.
Why do that if there is nothing to be worried about?
Martin Sumichrast Investigation
In my opinion, it reeks.
Even if an investor chooses to look past the board members of Isodial with MLM backgrounds and those who have been convicted of fraud, looking up the ladder at the promoters - Martin Sumichrast and Level Brands - and there's a decades long history of crappy stocks crashing and burning under that "leadership".
Barron's just trashed Sumichrast and Level Brands, featuring Kathy Ireland as the photo lead for their article this month where they say of Martin Sumichrast that his "career promoting underachieving stocks goes back to the 1990s" - Barron's article on Level Brands and mini-IPOs
These are petty naysayers trying to short the stock ( it can't be shorted, it's "hard to borrow" by brokers ). These are market pros calling out career hypesters and the concept of the mini-IPO.
A law firm and a stock watchdog group have both opened investigations into Level Brands, seeking insiders and whistleblowers for potential lawsuits. ShareSlueth - a site run by Mark Cuban - and one other independent journalist have blogs that heavily feature this crew.
Martin Sumichrast and Level Brands
Another Smoke and Mirrors Press Release
Level Brands announced today a licensing agreement with Society Hill for a new "Beauty & Pinups Vodka".
Problem is, Society Hill doesn't seem to exist anywhere other than in the imagination of Level Brands. Well, the business technically "exists" but they don't seem to have any business history, web presence, or sales.
Try searching for Society Hill Vodka and the only thing you come up with is the Level Brands press releases.
Society Hill is no doubt owned by a friend or relative of some related party to Level Brands and Kathy Ireland Worldwide.
What will most likely happen is that the stock gets a little bump and Level Brands will pay some sort of referral or commission fee to Kathy Ireland Worldwide ( or one of the wholly owned subsidiaries ) using investor capital against the future value of this "licensing agreement", but the "fees" paid by Society Hill will be in the form of some worthless paper only stock exchange.
These tactics are so shady and so transparent.
Next up? Watch for an announcement related to their related party Vaping company.
Another Level Brands Investigative Report
https://ipojournalist.wordpress.com/
Investigation of Level Brands Inc over Possible Violations of Securities Laws
This was sooner than expected. Two different legal groups are investigating Level Brands. They must have noticed the same problems I did in the annual report:
Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/3655209#ixzz57CZ6Li7I
...The investigation by a law firm focuses on whether certain statements regarding Level Brands Inc's business, its prospects and its operations were materially false and misleading at the time they were made.
Johnson Fistel, Announces Investigations of ... Level Brands, Inc.
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/johnson-fistel-announces-investigations-of-adomani-inc-shiftpixy-inc-arcimoto-inc-myomo-inc-fat-brands-inc-level-brands-inc-and-chicken-soup-for-the-soul-entertainment-inc-investors-with-losses-encouraged-to-co-300594662.html
Specifically, Johnson Fistel's investigation seeks to determine whether any of the following Company's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission related to recent stock offerings contained untrue statements of material facts or omitted to state other facts necessary to make the statements made therein not misleading.
ADOMANI, Inc. (NASDAQ: ADOM)
ShiftPixy, Inc. (NASDAQ: PIXY)
Arcimoto, Inc. (NASDAQ: FUV)
Myomo, Inc. (NYSE: MYO)
FAT Brands Inc. (NASDAQ: FAT)
Level Brands, Inc. (NYSE: LEVB)
Congrats Martin Sumichrast, you're back on the watchlist.
And her company promoting this business is under investigation by two groups known for class actions suits against investor fraud:
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/johnson-fistel-announces-investigations-of-adomani-inc-shiftpixy-inc-arcimoto-inc-myomo-inc-fat-brands-inc-level-brands-inc-and-chicken-soup-for-the-soul-entertainment-inc-investors-with-losses-encouraged-to-co-300594662.html
http://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/3655209
Completely fluff.
These kinds of press releases are designed to pump the stock for a few days. It's a two'fer, pumping both LEVB and Isodial.
Level Brands Fast Track to Delisting?
Level Brands volume today was a dismal 256 shares. The hourly transactions were slower than a lemonade stand in Alaska the middle of the winter. There doesn't seem to be much of a market for this stock, probably because there doesn't seem to be much substance to this stock.
10:00 am-11am: 13 shares and 8 shares. What serious investor buys this few shares unless it's to create a "last transaction" baseline price?
11:30 to 11:35 am - 190 shares. Less than a thousand dollars on a trade. Not promising.
Between Noon and Market Close: 4 shares, 20 shares, 20 more shares.
What possible purpose could there be for these tiny transactions? I would lose more money in the value of my billable hours than it would cost me just for the minutes it took to enter those transactions. Seriously. Four shares? Less than 20.00 worth of stock?
The NYSE requires a minimum number of average trades per day to avoid delisting. Today's trickle of transactions fall at just over 10% of that requirement.
In my opinion, this stock is going to delist shortly after insiders drink the last of the investors' IPO milkshake--through inflated salaries and "brand recognition" fees.
And if that happens...this won't be Marty Sumichrast's first trip to the delisting rodeo. The board of directors should have done more than a perfunctory background corporate history check on Sumichrast, and would have found his success rate as CEO of a public company hovers somewhere on the Success-O-Mometer at just over absolute zero. (More on that later).
But that would assume that the Board was interested in that kind of information. But reading the latest corporate filing from 1/29/2018, makes it appear there are some prior relationships among the board, Sumichrast, and Level Brands, and that most of the Board obtained shares in the company at friends-and-family pricing.
For those more interested in the facts than the Board of Directors seems to be, do a Google search for "Martin Sumichrast Fraud". Sumichrast seems to have gotten solid advice about pushing down bad search engine results, as a simple search of Martin Sumichrast returns pages from multiple domains and self-published content. But get past page one and details emerge about everything from his control of a public company involvement promoted by convicted felon "Wolf of Wall Street" Jordan Belfort, to Sumichrast's role as CEO of a company delisted in 2001 from NASDAQ.
Delisted not because of weak trading. But because NASDAQ took notice of his association with another group of less than savory characters.
Not surprisingly, under the helm of Sumichrast, Level Brands has made some curious business decisions and significant blocks of stock have been transferred to other entities (including his own Stone Street Partners firm) in transactions that seem to benefit related parties far more than the IPO investors and shareholders Sumichrast is supposed to represent.
As always, more to come.
Disclaimer: I still do not hold any investment interest, long or short, in Level Brands or any of their other oddly associated companies.
If you are an IPO investor and would like more info feel free to message me directly here on InvestorsHub.
Martin Sumichrast, Rick Siskey and ... Kathy Ireland
This strange and convoluted corporate entity that is Level Brands exists in a strange parallel to another entity and public company, "Social Reality".
Following all of these strange connections via Google searches is like diving headfirst without a helmet through Alice's Looking Glass.
In 2016, Social Reality hired a new CFO and engaged Kathy Ireland as "Chief Branding Officer". This is virtually identical to her touted title as part of Level Brands, though "Emeritus" status has been attached.
In 2017, Rick Siskey, Martin Sumichrast's partner at Siskey Capital committed suicide after a criminal investigation into an alleged ponzi scheme run by Siskey was revealed. Days later, Sumichrast claimed no knowledge of the scheme and changed the name of Siskey Capital to Stone Street Partners.
Siskey Capital was a lender and investor in Social Reality, and Stone Street Partners is deeply involved in Level Brands. Both engaged Kathy Ireland World Wide for "Brand Development" support, and media distributed by both companies speak of their "disruptive brand strategy".
Besides recycling marketing content, it appears many other elements and relationships are mirrored by Level Brands.
In November of 2016, Kathy Ireland was the honorary chair of an event sponsored by KURE Vaporium, another business Sumichrast was deeply involved in as quoted in this article, as detailed in this quote from Ireland:
"It is a great honor to join Martin and Cindy Sumichrast of KURE Vaporium in their generosity and support of this important film. Our Co-Chairs for this red carpet event include the Sumichrasts, Rick and Diane Siskey as well as Craig and Anne Brewer," said Kathy Ireland Chair and CEO kathy ireland Worldwide.
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/charlotte-premiere-of-award-winning-film-a-billion-lives-to-salute-local-firms-leadership-in-the-vaping-revolution-300365500.html
Any legitimate business professional would want to shy away from such bad PR in the wake of Rick Siskey's suicide, and anyone can understand why Ireland would want to do the same. But the rabbit hole just goes deeper as all of these same names keep appearing in related-party transactions among several companies--all with closely associated investors and management--deja vu marketing content and press releases, and the further one goes the more strange connections - and unsavory characters appears.
Unwinding this gordian knot of intertwined business relationships and the parties involved is confusing at the very least, but once it's explained it makes it easier to see the forest for the trees.
More to come.
Goldrusher,
I was following this board and the crash of NuGene stock for many weeks.
Doing followup research, I found info in a lawsuit filed against Kathy Ireland Wolrdwide ( that mentions NuGene ) about some stock transactions.
Just recently I saw that a large block of NuGene stock was transferred to Level Brands, then within days transferred to Level Brands CEOs investment form for a fraction of the supposed value and an IOU. Really odd.
Level Brands relationship with Kathy Ireland World Wide is touted in every press release. I’m still mapping the convoluted relationships between all the companies involved.
I enjoyed your use of the term “rent-a-name”. Well done.
I hadn't heard of them either. I was following a board here on a company called NuGene. A friend got burned on what many vocal posters say was a classic pump and dump.
That stock is all but dead, but when I was doing some followup research I saw a weird connection between NuGene and Level Brands via a stock transaction, and a lawsuit that was filed against Kathy Ireland Worldwide.
That led me to deep dive into the Level Brands filings.
All of this reminds me of a company I worked for in the mid 90s. A couple of guys running a small investment firm modeled themselves on the Wolf of Wall street, did a reverse merger then pumped the stock up to over $15 before it all crashed and burned. They bled that company dry through all kinds of shady behind the scenes deals that they prettied up for the corporate filings.
After they shuttered the place, I was called in to assist with a forensic accounting that led to indictments.
Oddly enough, Martin Sumichrast actually WAS directly involved with Jordan Belfort (The Wolf of Wall Street) before Belfort's conviction in 1999. Sumichrast had been chief financial officer of Czech Industries at the time when its public offering was used as a fraud vehicle by Belfort's Stratton Oakmont.
This is just the tip of the iceberg.
The Byzantine business structure at Level Brands and their related party transactions require a massively convoluted chart, but I'm working on it.
As far as press releases, from everything I can see all of their PR is associated with related parties and other public companies that all have relationships with the board or with Kathy Ireland Worldwide.
More to come.
I've never read a more convoluted annual report than the one for Level Brands.
I read this thing front to back, including the associated documents: contracts, leases, related party statements, share ownership documents, stock purchases and shares granted in related companies and so on and so on...
And when I was done, I tried to short this stock immediately.
Unfortunately, it is considered "hard to borrow" and therefore can't be shorted by my broker.
So clear disclaimer: I have no financial interest in this time in this stock.
I'm sure the trolls are going to come out, and if they feel this company is a magic stock rocket that's going to boom on the NYSE ( I'm betting on delisting ), please please please - create an option chain for puts at the market value right now and I'll buy them all day long.
So allow me to start with this glaring problem from the initial annual filing that will set the tone for everything I post later:
"As described later in this report, our management has determined that, as of September 30, 2017, we did not maintain effective internal controls over financial reporting"
Just after the IPO goes live in November, and under the stewardship and fiscal responsibility of CEO Martin Sumichrast and CFO/COO Mark Elliott, they did not maintain internal controls over financial reporting.
(Spoiler alert: As I unravel this annual report and the team that filed it, I will be spotlighting the lack of financial controls and who is drinking the investors' milkshake. Hint: It's never the investors)
Later in the same report, this management brain-trust follows up with this comforting get out of jail free card:
"Changes in Internal Control over Financial Reporting:
There have been *no changes* in our internal control over financial reporting during out last fiscal quarter that has materially affected or is reasonably likely to materially affect our internal control over financial reporting."
In other words, despite admitting they conveniently lost control of financial accounting, they admit that they have done nothing to correct it.
Shocker.