Cookies, a prominent cannabis brand launched by San Francisco rapper Berner, is back in hot water after a new lawsuit was filed last week alleging the brand’s executives used fraud to “line their pockets” at the expense of partner businesses.
Last week’s lawsuit is the third to be filed against the company in 2023, alleging improper business tactics. A pair of lawsuits filed earlier this year accused Cookies’ executives of siphoning off millions of dollars in kickbacks, with one lawsuit from a group of investors accusing Cookies brass of using threats of physical violence to “strongarm and bully others into paying them millions of dollars in personal benefits and kickbacks.”
The latest lawsuit, filed last week in Los Angeles Superior Court by the cannabis breeding company SeedJunky, claims that Cookies and SeedJunky launched a joint venture named Minntz in 2019 to sell cannabis products. The lawsuit accuses Cookies executives of abusing their power to “cook Minntz’s books to SeedJunky’s detriment” and alleges that Cookies executives used fraud to “line their pockets” at SeedJunky’s expense.
Berner, whose legal name is Gilbert Milam Jr., is a named defendant in the latest lawsuit. SeedJunky alleges that Milam and other Cookies executives sold cannabis strains “stolen” from SeedJunky under the Cookies brand name and provided “false and fraudulent” financial data to SeedJunky staff.
Read more at sfgate.com
