Anthony Todd Johnson et al – SEC Files Complaint | Recover Losses

Anthony Todd Johnson et al – SEC Files Complaint | Goodman & Nekvasil P.A. May Recover Investor Losses

According to the SEC: 

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced charges against six individuals and their companies for defrauding investors in connection with unregistered securities offerings that raised over $25 million.

The SEC’s complaint alleges that, between September 2017 and February 2019, California residents Anthony Todd Johnson (a/k/a Todd Johnson), Jeremy T. Johnson, Richard A. Portillo, and Michael R. Gregory, and Arizona residents Charles Lloyd and Mark W. Heckele, raised funds from more than 400 individuals to invest in two separate cannabis-related businesses in California, a marijuana farm and a cannabidiol (CBD) extraction facility. As alleged in the complaint, the six individual defendants allegedly conducted the scheme through nine issuers and three marketing companies, Smart Initiatives, LLC, Valley View Enterprises LLC, Target Equity LLC, Zabala Farms Group, LLC, GPA Enterprises LLC, C-Quadrant LLC, Green Bud Initiatives LLC, RJ Holdings Group, LLC, CIS Marketing, LLC, Green Growth Ventures, LLC, Extraction Capital Tier 1, LLC, and Lloyd Marketing, LLC.

According to the complaint, brothers Todd and Jeremy Johnson, Portillo, Lloyd, and Heckele led investors to believe they would receive a guaranteed annual return on their investments of 100% or more. The complaint alleges that the Johnsons misappropriated more than $2.7 million of investor money and, with Gregory, deceived investors about a purported “business loan” secured by real property to develop the CBD extraction facility that in fact was used to pay back investors in an unrelated entity. The complaint further alleges that certain defendants misrepresented the principals’ backgrounds, their capital contributions, and a purported relationship with a California university.

The SEC’s complaint, filed in federal court in the Central District of California, charges the defendants (with the exception of Lloyd Marketing) with violating the antifraud provisions of Section 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5 thereunder. The complaint further charges all defendants with violating the registration provisions of Section 5 of the Securities Act and charges the Johnsons, Portillo, Lloyd, Heckele, Green Bud Initiatives, CIS Marketing, and Lloyd Marketing with violating the broker-dealer registration requirements of Section 15(a) of the Exchange Act. The SEC seeks permanent injunctions, disgorgement of ill-gotten gains plus prejudgment interest, and civil penalties.

Investors May Recover their Losses with Goodman & Nekvasil, P.A.

If you invested, Goodman & Nekvasil, P.A. may help you. Goodman & Nekvasil, P.A., a Clearwater, Florida, law firm with a national practice representing victimized investors, has recovered more than $180 million dollars on behalf of victimized investors.

All our cases are handled on a purely contingency fee basis by Kalju Nekvasil, Esq., formerly regional counsel with the NASD, now known as FINRA. Kalju Nekvasil, Esq. has practiced in this area of the law for more than 35 years.

There is no charge for an evaluation of your case. Further, we handle our cases on a contingency fee basis. This means that unless we recover money for you, we charge no attorney’s fee. Unless you recover any money, you pay us nothing, not even the costs and expenses which the firm will advance on your behalf.

If you incurred investment losses and would like your case evaluated by a securities attorney (again, there is no charge for an evaluation and all cases are handled on a purely contingency fee basis), please contact us.

 

Contact Us Today!

[]
1 Step 1
reCaptcha v3
keyboard_arrow_leftPrevious
Nextkeyboard_arrow_right
FormCraft - WordPress form builder

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *