HERE GO.. SEE HOW SIMILAR THE TWO COMPANIES ARE RAN BY THE SAME TWO PEOPLE WHILE NO REVENUES EVER TO THE COMPANIES JUST HUGE SELLING AND LAW SUITS GALORE.. WORTH THE READ IF YOU WERE THINKING OF INVESTING AND LOSING YOUR MONEY
Scorcher Filed Against Arizona Mining Company
July 10, 2012JAMIE ROSSFacebookTwitterEmail
PHOENIX (CN) – Directors and shareholders of a mining company claim in court that the company’s president and his daughter “manipulated the stock value of United Mines for their own benefit,” while the company was losing $9 million.
United Mines Inc., whose stock trades over the counter, four of its directors and three shareholders sued CEO Glenn E. Martin, his daughter Nicole M. Breen, and Gem Management Group, in Maricopa County Court.
Martin, United Mines CEO, president, CFO and executive vice president, and Breen, the company’s secretary and treasurer, “illegally issued stock in United Mines to themselves, GEM Management, the entity controlled by them, and various friends and supporters,” according to the complaint.
“Defendant Nicole M. Breen is the daughter of defendant Glenn E. Martin,” the complaint states. Gem Management Group is an Arizona LLC “owned and controlled by defendants Glenn E. Martin and Nicole M. Breen,” it adds.
“In a situation that has become far too common today in public markets, a small group of people have used a public company purely to further their own interests,” the complaint states. “In this case, those people are defendants Glenn E. Martin and his daughter, Nicole M. Breen, who through a series of stock scams and manipulations, among other acts, have victimized United Mines and more than two hundreds (200) shareholders.”
The plaintiffs claim that Martin and Breen “manipulated the stock value of United Mines for their own benefit, and filed false and fraudulent 10-Qs (the quarterly reports) and 10-Ks (the annual reports) with the Securities and Exchange Commission over the objection of the independent members of the Board of Directors.”
United Mines, a mining business focusing on gold, silver, and copper, “has yet to produce a single ounce of any precious metal or a dollar in revenues, although it did generate more than $2 million in losses in 2011 alone and, accumulated losses of $7 million through 2011,” according to the complaint.
The plaintiff directors claim the defendants “forged the signatures of the independent members of the board on the last 10-K for 2011; sold assets of United Mines without the knowledge or approval of the Board of Directors or shareholders; [and] have paid management fees in the form of cash and stock to GEM Management Group … without the approval of the board.”
The plaintiffs claim Martin and Breen also “paid themselves salaries in the form of cash and stock without board approval; have failed to pay critical monthly bills, and have engaged in a pattern of defrauding professionals by accepting services then refusing to pay their fees; have failed to file federal and state income tax returns for at least the last several years, and plaintiffs believe have also failed to pay payroll taxes or file quarterly returns for years.”
The plaintiffs say the Board of Directors fired Martin and Breen on June 12, but Martin refuses to provide access to company books and records and is still operating United Mines. Martin “has orchestrated a sham shareholders meeting for July 25, 2012, designed to remove the directors who fired him as an officer,” the complaint states.
The plaintiffs say that “a shareholders meeting of this time would be so tainted by the defendants’ illegal and unauthorized stock sales, the illegal issuance of common stock to themselves, their money laundering scheme, and their stock manipulation scams, that it would have no meaning other than as an endorsement of what plaintiffs submit is the criminal conduct of the defendants.”
The directors claim that Martin and Breen “paid their own personal expenses and monthly bills with corporate funds; have consistently for a period of years refused access to the books and records of United Mines to the Board of Directors; have engaged in a money laundering scheme through illegal sales of stock; and transported a hazardous substance (i.e., cyanide used to refine silver which is rated as a Class 6 poison by the EPA) without a permit or the approval of the EPA or the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality.”
The complaint continues: “Defendant Glenn Martin transported more than 3,000 pounds of cyanide across sixty (60) miles through commercial and residential areas without authority and without a permit. For the record, defendant Glenn E. Martin has a prior felony conviction for conspiracy to possess cocaine with intent to distribute and related felony drug offenses.”
The plaintiffs seek disgorgement, compensatory, punitive and treble damages for racketeering, fraud, and breach of fiduciary duty, among other things. They also seek an injunction preventing the defendants from running the shareholders meeting on July 25, where the plaintiffs say Martin will try to regain control over United Mines.
They are represented by James Laganke.
Return To Top
Columns Law National Regional International About Us Terms of Use Privacy Policy Masthead
NOW WEED INC. SAME TWO AT IT AGAIN
Weed Inc. CEO Faces New Accusations Of Insider Trading
Debra BorchardtDebra Borchardt
April 25, 2018
12min4
United MinesWeed Inc.
Related Articles
BUSINESS
Tilray Restructures, Cuts Workforce, Stock Rises
BUSINESSPSYCHEDELICSVIDEOS
Business Strategy For Psychedelic Companies
BUSINESSDAILY HIT
The Daily Hit: February 4, 2020
Trouble seems to follow Glenn Martin and publicly traded securities. Martin, who often sprinkles in references to the Lord in conversation, is currently CEO of cannabis company Weed Inc. (BUDZ) but was previously the subject of a securities complaint by 200 shareholders of his previous company United Mines. He is now facing a new complaint by Travis Nelson, a former employee, and shareholder of Weed.
Weed is a cannabis company based in Arizona and is operated by Martin, his daughter Nicole Breen and her husband Ryan Breen. The company says it is focused on the development and application of cannabis-derived compounds for the treatment of human disease. Its wholly-owned subsidiary, Sangre AT, LLC has begun a planned five-year genomic study to complete a genetic blueprint of the Cannabis plant genus, by creating a global genomic classification of the entire plant. Sangre is operated by Dr. Pat and Mary Williams.
Nelson filed a lawsuit in February against Weed Inc., Martin, Sangre Agrotech and Dr. Williams alleging that Martin reneged on an agreed upon position with the company. The suit claims that he was promised 50,000 shares and a five-year contract at $120,000 a year. Current company filings show Nelson as owning 50,000 shares.
Illegal Transportation Accusations
Nelson had worked from Sangre Agrotech during the time it was acquired by Martin’s company Weed. Nelson became concerned that Martin was not following the laws for legal cannabis and stated his concern for what he suspected was an interstate movement of cannabis. Nelson produced an email that suggests that cannabis seeds improperly crossed state lines.
“I was fired for bringing up my concerns over the seeds crossing state lines and expressing my desire to operate within the law,” said Nelson. Nelson says he doesn’t claim to be a choir boy, but that he was very insistent that laws be followed to be in the cannabis industry.
This accusation of illegal transporting of a product has been leveled at Martin before. Martin was accused in his previous company United Mines of illegally transporting cyanide over state lines. The lawsuit claims, “Defendant Glenn Martin transported more than 3,000 pounds of cyanide across sixty (60) miles through commercial and residential areas without authority and without a permit. For the record, Defendant Glenn E. Martin has a prior felony conviction for conspiracy to possess cocaine with intent to distribute and related felony drug offenses.” Cyanide is a deadly Class 6 poison that Martin supposedly hauled through the state in a U-haul truck. Nelson’s accusation of transporting cannabis seeds across state lines would be the second time Martin has been called out by shareholders for illegally moving product.
Insider Trading Accusations
The lawsuit also claims that Martin made substantial gains on insider trading of Weed Inc. stock. Nelson says he told Martin that he was concerned that the stock trading activity appeared to be insider trading. The Weed Inc. stock traded in the range of $1 during most of 2017 and then moved to $2.80 at the end of December 2017. Then in the first week of January, it shot up to $14.45 for a gain of over 1,000% on no news.
Martin’s response regarding Nelson’s accusation of the unusual trading was, “The Lord was behind it.” Martin did concede that the SEC (Securities & Exchange Commission) had questioned him about the trading activity, but the SEC wouldn’t discuss Mr. Martin or any investigations regarding him. “It was pure organic growth,” he claims. He also claims Weed Inc. was the first cannabis company with a billion dollar market cap, yet it has no revenue. “There’s never been any insider trading,” he said. Martin, his daughter Nicole Breen and her husband Ryan Breen own 80% of the company stock.
Martin also claims he doesn’t know Nelson and never met him, yet Nelson was able to quickly produce emails and messages exchanged between the two as well as documents where both parties signed on the same date.
United Mine shareholders also accused Martin of insider trading. In that lawsuit, shareholders claimed, “In addition to illegal stock sales and the money laundering scheme, Defendants Martin and Breen have illegally inflated the price of the stock of the United Mines through friends they asked to purchase stock at a price higher than market value, thereby increasing the value of their own stock holdings. This scheme was also designed to attract legitimate third-party investors.”
The case from the United Mines shareholders which Martin described as a hostile takeover was settled in 2014 resulting in Martin recovering the company. The lawyer in the case did not respond to a request for comment and the other terms of the settlement weren’t clear.
Bizarre Behavior
Another former employee had an even more bizarre tale, although she hasn’t filed a lawsuit, is Amanda Gross, who owns 30,000 shares. Gross was coming onto the project as a Master Grower and was associated with the Williams of Sangre Agrotech. She was going to test the clones from Dr. Williams and put the strains through a rigorous testing cycle. “The idea was to create genetically superior marijuana,“ she said.
The first sign of trouble was the company’s decision to purchase an active fundamentalist church to repurpose as a cultivation facility. She said it caused a lot of acrimony in the La Veta, CO community and felt it was a poor decision.
Then, at her very first board meeting, Gross said Martin behaved in such an unprofessional manner that she called him out for his behavior during the meeting. Gross says she still has seven pages of copious notes from the meeting. “It was so disturbing I knew I had to document it,” she said.
Gross said that Martin asked about her sex life, questioned her ability as a mother and asked whether she ‘loved the plant.’ Gross is not a cannabis consumer. She said he began yelling during the meeting when she called out his unprofessionalism. She said to everyone in the meeting he had basically broken every sexual harassment law on the books, to which he said, “I love the Lord. I’m a Christian. I have not been with a woman.” Saying his celibacy was none of her business.
Despite the bizarre behavior, Gross said that the Williams of Sangre Agrotech convinced her to stay but in the second meeting with Glenn Martin the bizarre behavior began again and she decided to quit. “He’s a horrible manager of his mouth. He’s a misogynist,” she said, “I have considered moving forward with legal action.”
She’d like to sell her shares but is unable to because the company won’t release them. “I can’t sell my stock until Glenn adheres to all the SEC requirements,” said Gross. She said she contacted Mary Williams at Sangre to ask about Martin completing his SEC requirements and hasn’t gotten an answer. Gross is now working with cannabis grower Jamal Hackler.
Martin says he doesn’t remember the meeting the way Gross describes it and suggested that people tell falsehoods. Mary Williams at Sangre Agrotech is one of the few people that were also at the meeting but did not return requests for comment. The Williams recently provided the company with a loan to acquire a condominium in La Vela CO.
Additional Lawsuit
In the company’s latest S-1 filing there is another lawsuit filed by William Martin, whom Glenn Martin says is no relation. William Martin is suing for breach of contract where he provided services in exchange for company shares that weren’t delivered. This suit involved a request for a temporary restraining order that was denied.
Connections To Medical Marijuana
D. Stuart Titus, CEO and President of Medical Marijuana (MJNA) was a United Mines shareholder and is now a Weed Inc. shareholder according to Martin. Dr. Titus didn’t respond to a request for comment. “He put in a quarter of a million dollars in United Mines in 2009. I know Stuart well, but to me, he was just a front for Michael Llamas.” Michael Llamas died in a car accident in 2017, but was investigated for various real estate scams and was facing lawsuits associated with MJNA before leaving the company. Other than being a shareholder in Weed Inc., there doesn’t seem to be any other connection between the two companies.
Big Losses, No Revenue
Similar to United Mines, Weed Inc. has extraordinary losses and little revenue to show. In the case of United Mines, the shareholders complained no precious metals were ever mined. In the situation with Weed, no cannabis revenue has been produced. There has been zero revenue for 2016 or 2017, while the company has reported a net loss of $4.1 million. the losses are attributed to the company paying for professional fees and administrative costs.
Investors should pay close attention to the filings with the SEC on companies that report big losses and issue shares for payment for services. A company facing numerous lawsuits from shareholders should give investors a moment of pause.
Debra Borchardt
Debra Borchardt
