A federal judge in Denver has ruled that more than $3 million in assets held by Colorado marijuana mogul Jeffrey Friedland be temporarily frozen, but not a Snowmass Village home that the Securities & Exchange Commission alleges he concealed through a limited liability company.
Chief U.S. District Judge Marcia Krieger’s ruling Thursday said the SEC failed to adequately provide a strong enough case that the 2,796-square-foot home at 46 Meadow Road actually belongs to Friedman or his wife.
The SEC sued Friedland last week in the U.S. Court of Denver on securities-fraud allegations that he was paid by a marijuana-based pharmaceutical company to tout its stock through blogs, media interviews and other mediums without disclosing that association. Federal securities laws make it illegal to publicize a company’s stock for compensation without disclosing that.
Friedland’s company Global Corporate Strategies, also a defendant, allegedly received 5.1 million shares in Israel-based OWC Pharmaceutical Research Corp. as payment for Friedland’s stock-promotion campaign that ran February 2016 through August 2017. Those shares were transferred to an LLC controlled by Friedland’s wife, Kathy, in January 2017, the SEC contends.
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