Just days after Canadian cannabis company Aphria announced it was paying an exorbitant price for undeveloped marijuana farms in Jamaica and South America from Scythian Biosciences an insider, Andy DeFrancesco, was using Barry Honig’s deal lawyer to move hidden shares within his family. I am reporting for Cannabis Law Report today that new emails written by attorney Harvey Kesner on behalf of the DeFrancescos could show how the insiders skirt beneficial ownership disclosure rules. I reported last week, DeFrancesco’s alleged hidden stock ownership is at the heart of a new securities fraud lawsuit filed against him and his band of sophisticated bad actors by Aphria main street investors.
According to two people familiar with the transaction, some of Andy’s Canadian friends who benefited with him on the deal are: Canadian millionaire Michael Serruya, Marvin Igelman, Lloyd Tomlinson and Clifford Starke. The names of investors on the deal, that ran through a private equity firm Andy controls called the Delavaco Group, is redacted in documents filed with Canadian regulators. The only public details shareholders get to see is how many millions in shares Scythian paid the LLC Andy set up for the assets. You can see Team DeFrancesco celebrating in February 2018 with Andy in Jamaica at a hotspot called Prendy’s On the Beach after they closed on the private cannabis license deal. The photo was posted by Michael Serruya on his private Instagram account.
My story at Cannabis Law Report details a Scythian stock transaction by Andy’s sister Andrea DeFrancesco (a flight attendant) and his wife Catherine DeFrancesco (a yoga studio owner) that appears to show Andy controlling the shares in an off-market stock sale between family on July 23, 2018. This is six days after a C$193 million deal is announce by Aphria and Scythian, which Andy is believed to have significantly benefit from at the expense of Aphria shareholders. When the U.S. broker dealer saw attorney Harvey Kesner was pushing to get the shares through the U.S. clearing system call the DTC the transaction’s legitimacy was challenged. Harvey Kesner was also the SEC reporting lawyer for Scythian during this time, which could create a conflict of interest for the New York law firm, Sichenzia Ross Ference Kesner LLP, that use to bear his name. Read here to get a behind the scenes glimpse of how parts of the alleged securities fraud was run.
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