Aphria Inc (fka APHA)

[CornellEngineer]

Wow, the more I dig into this DeFrancesco debacle the stinkier this big pile of steaming crap gets. No wonder Vic was involved with this guy...he's been joined at the hip with him since Day 1. DeFrancesco was the mastermind behind the very founding of Aphria in the first place...

https://greencamp.com/is-aphria-lying-to-the-shareholders-about-their-overseas-investments/

The one thing, or better say person, that connects all the dots with Aphria, Scythian, and the overseas acquisitions is non other than Andy DeFrancesco.

Andy DeFrancesco is the founder of the Delavaco Group, which is a private equity firm based in Toronto, however, he’s been recently removed from their website.

His wife is now listed as the Chairman and CEO of the Delavaco Group.

DeFrancesco has a very tight relationship with Scythian BioSciences, which got renamed in the meantime to Sol Global Investments.

Scythian’s reverse-merger deal that took the company public was handled by the COO of the Delavaco Group – DeFrancesco’s personal private equity firm.

DeFrancesco was also listed as the founding investor in Aphria on the Delavaco website, which can still be seen here.

The Delavaco Group was also listed as the advisor in Aphria’s reverse-merger into a company named Black Sparrow Capital Corp. This deal took Aphria public.

Here’s the shocker: at the time of the deal, the COO of Delavaco Capital was the CEO and CFO of the Black Sparrow shell.

There’s something funky happening with Aphria’s acquisitions and deal structuring, and it would be a shame if it is happening off the backs of trusty investors.

Black Sparrow was just one of the umpteen shell companies that DeFrancesco set up using his Delavaco Group that was the forerunner of what eventually became Aphria...

http://www.marketwired.com/press-release/black-sparrow-capital-corp-announces-shareholder-approval-connection-with-qualifying-tsx-venture-blc.h-1973153.htm

http://www.marketwired.com/press-release/aphria-inc-begins-trading-on-the-tsxv-1974830.htm

Now it's clear to me why Liberty Health is also getting hammered so bad...they are probably up to their necks in this scam just as much. After DeFrancesco got Aphria going and installed his puppet/partner Neufeld as its CEO they next tried to infiltrate Florida while bypassing the drug laws of both the US and Canada...

https://www.firstcoastnews.com/article/news/local/florida/the-canadian-connection-how-an-equity-firm-bought-its-way-into-the-fl-marijuana-industry/461638351

Enter yet another DeFrancesco shell company called DFMMJ Investments that swooped in and bought out Chestnut Hill Tree Farm which was one of the first companies to get licensed in Florida after they approved medical marijuana and then turned right around and sold part of it to Vic at Aphria...

http://www.marketwired.com/press-release/aphria-advances-growth-us-medical-cannabis-market-with-completion-strategic-investment-tsx-aph-2218181.htm

Which eventually became Liberty Health...

https://aphria.ca/blog/aphria-launches-us-expansion-strategy/

Except when that happened the TSX threatened to delist Aphria since they appeared to be in violation of US law forcing them to divest themselves from Liberty (at least on paper)...

https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/12/24/this-marijuana-stock-is-waving-goodbye-to-the-usa.aspx

It's also apparent to me now why Aphria has had such a weak and muted response to QCM/Hindenburg's accusations...because in all likelihood they got Vic dead to rights...

https://equity.guru/2018/12/04/tepid-aphria-apha-t-response-short-report-accusations-sees-stock-hammered/

Because now DeFrancesco & Neufeld are pulling the exact same crap in South America and the Caribbean except this time they're using DeFrancesco's Scythian-turned-SOL shell company as the middleman...

https://www.barrons.com/articles/marijuana-stock-aphria-down-on-short-seller-report-1543855963

Man oh man, this is looking really bad. After researching all this now I'm glad I only lost as little as I did on Aphria & Liberty & Scythian. I've never shorted a stock in my life and never plan to but I gotta admit some of these Aphria December put options are looking mighty tempting...

https://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/apha/option-chain/most-active

I'm seriously starting to think that there's a great chance this company is going down and Vic is going to jail if the SEC does its job. Which kinda sucks because I don't see how the 3rd largest cannabis company on the entire planet can get taken out and not drag the entire pot sector down with it...at least for a while until investors get their confidence back. I still got some open swing trades going so it would seem that I am not yet done losing money thanks to Vic and his corrupt crony. This DeFrancesco guy is destined to become a Wall Street legend when it comes to fraud. Not on the same scale as a Bernie Madoff or a Bernie Ebbers but more like in Ivan Boesky's league...

https://www.cheatsheet.com/money-career/10-of-the-biggest-wall-street-busts-of-all-time.html/

"Greed is good"? I beg to differ.