High Times Magazine Executive Pleads Guilty In Securities Fraud Scheme - $20 Million From 'Investor-Victims'

The founder and chairman of Hightimes Holding Corp., the company that publishes High Times magazine, has agreed to plead guilty to joining a criminal conspiracy to pay more than $150,000 in undisclosed compensation to an analyst for an investment newsletter that touted its stock and assisted Hightimes in raising at least $6 million, officials said Friday.

Adam Levin was charged last month with one federal count of conspiracy to tout securities for undisclosed compensation. In a plea agreement filed Dec. 20, Levin agreed to plead guilty to the felony offense, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Levin, who purchased the iconic cannabis magazine in 2017 following the death of its original owner of 40 years, the late Michael J. Kennedy, ESQ, is scheduled to appear in a Los Angeles federal court on Jan. 14.

Read More: High Times Hit With $5M Class Action Lawsuit Over Unfulfilled Stock Deals

Money Laundering And Pay To Play

Levin is the fourth defendant to be charged in the scheme in which companies paid an analyst at Palm Beach Venture, an investment newsletter with subscribers nationwide. That analyst, Jonathan William Mikula along with his associate, Christian Fernandez, who acted as a money launderer for the scheme and Raj Beri who brokered deals for undisclosed payments by other issuers, each received a portion of the payments. Mikula, Fernandez and Beri each pleaded guilty last year and are scheduled to be sentenced in July 2025.

The payments made by executives such as Levin were in exchange for Palm Beach Venture publishing promotional pieces for securities offerings, according to court documents. Federal law requires full and public disclosure from anyone who has received payment, directly or indirectly from an issuer for publishing, publicizing or circulating any advertisement or communication that describes the issuer’s security offered for sale.

$20 Million From ‘Investor-Victims’

According to Levin's plea agreement, in 2020 and 2021 "Hightimes raised approximately $20 million from more than 10 investor-victims, with at least $6 million in investment proceeds associated with Palm Beach Venture's promotion."

To conceal the scheme, noted the Attorney’s Office, Levin entered into a sham “marketing agreement” and routed the payments through a Canadian bank to a shell company in Canada, according to the plea agreement.

Mikula then caused Palm Beach Venture to promote Hightimes’ securities offering on April 6 and Sept. 23 in 2020 in articles that falsely stated, “Neither the Palm Beach Research Group nor its affiliates receive compensation for bringing this deal to you,” the plea agreement states.

Levin also admitted that he lied to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission when he denied knowing that he entered into a “pay-for-play arrangement,” court papers show.

The FBI is investigating the matter.

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Photo: Sarah Stierch (CC BY 4.0)