A house in Snowmass Village and a condo in Denver can’t be sold while a securities-fraud case proceeds against a man accused of defrauding investors in a pump-and-dump marijuana stock scheme.
U.S. District Court judge Marcia S. Krieger last week froze the assets of Jeffrey Friedland, including the two homes and accounts containing nearly $3.1 million.
The SEC sued Friedland in early March claiming that he was paid by OWC Pharmaceutical Research Corp., a marijuana-based pharmaceutical company in Israel, to tout its stock through blogs, media interviews and other media without disclosing that association. It is illegal under federal securities laws to publicize a company’s stock for compensation without disclosing that.
The SEC also contends Friedland used $7 million in ill-gotten gains to buy, among other things, the 2,796-square-foot Snowmass home for nearly $2 million in a cash transaction in August 2017.
Friedland allegedly dumped the 5.1 million shares he received to campaign for OWC’s stock, as well as 1.3 million shares he bought for $120,000 in 2013, for about $7 million in 2017, the complaint alleges.
In addition to Freidland, a host of limited liability companies are named as defendants in the complaint.
A former owner of retail pot shops in Breckenridge and Crested Butte, as well as a cannabis cultivation center near Steamboat Springs, Friedland wrote the book “Marijuana: The World’s Most Misunderstood Plant.”
Friedland and his co-defendants have until April 20 to file a response to the complaint.
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