GENIUS FUND WASTED $165M: SUIT

Radio Free Europe has a fascinating story about the collapse of multi-pronged California venture Genius Fund.

The company was controlled by Dmitry Bosov, a politically-connected Russian billionaire who died in May of an apparent suicide. Weeks earlier, a California lawsuit, filed by a former employee and CEO, said Bosov lost $165M on the venture.

• MJBiz reporter John Schroyer had never heard of anyone investing that much in a cannabis company.
• According to the lawsuit, “GFG failed to generate any substantial revenue during virtually its entire existence and has survived only through periodic cash infusions from certain well-funded foreign Defendants. When those Defendants finally realized the enormity of GFG’s outstanding debts and financial mismanagement, they began rapidly transferring GFG’s ownership and assets to shell companies in order to evade their creditors.”

Quick Hit

1. Green Market Report reported video content company CFN Media managed to secure a PPP loan then stiffed two longtime vendors. CFN President Frank Lane told WeedWeek the piece didn’t tell both sides of the story, and the company is working to pay the vendors.