Lionshare Ventures LLC – Goodman & Nekvasil P.A. May Recover Investor Losses
Securities and Exchange Commission Enters Final Judgment Against Lionshare Ventures, LLC
The Securities and Exchange Commission announced that it has entered a final default judgment in an ongoing SEC enforcement action against Lionshare Ventures, LLC, a Massachusetts-based privately-held corporation that the SEC alleges was a business incubator for microcap companies.
According to the SEC’s complaint charges Lionshare and its owner, Christopher Esposito, of Topsfield, Massachusetts, with allegedly raising more than $550,000 in investor funds in an unregistered offering of Lionshare securities and misappropriating $375,000 for his personal benefit. According to the SEC’s complaint, Esposito and Lionshare raised the funds from investors between June 2011 and June 2012, spending almost $300,000 of investor funds for personal expenses, and using $75,000 of investor funds to acquire control of a Massachusetts-based publicly-traded company, Cannabiz Mobile, Inc., by purchasing all of its convertible debt. The SEC’s complaint further alleged that, between May 2012 and August 2015, Esposito and Lionshare, together with Anthony Jay Pignatello of Manhattan Beach, California, concealed Esposito and Lionshare’s de facto control of Cannabiz and a large percentage of Cannabiz’ securities in order to profit by evading SEC Rule 144, which limits securities sales by affiliates, such as control persons. According to the complaint, Esposito and Lionshare allegedly did this by, among other things, installing James Gondolfe as the sole officer and director of Cannabiz – even though Esposito secretly controlled the company – to make false statements in Cannabiz’s public filings and other documents.
According to the complaint, Esposito paid third-party stock promoters to tout Cannabiz stock in order to increase its stock price and trading volume; he sold significant amounts of Cannabiz convertible debt to others for almost $304,000; and with Pignatello and Renee Galizio of Loxahatchee, Florida, sold millions of shares of Cannabiz stock directly into the public market.
Investors in Lionshare Ventures LLC May Recover their Losses with Goodman & Nekvasil, P.A.
If you invested in Lionshare Ventures LLC, 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 with Lionshare Ventures LLC 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.
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