Juicy Fields crowdgrowing – scam?
Hailed as an “innovative” approach to crowdfunding for cannabis, Juicy Fields offered investors the opportunity to become a “potpreneur and benefit from the booming cannabis industry”. In its “green paper”, the company set out how its business model of “crowdgrowing” enables investors to become cannabis entrepreneurs with “less risk and greater income control.”
Juicy Fields claimed it would have partnerships with entities that have established “distribution networks, processing systems, licenses, employees and cultivation expertise which are or in progress” to become fully licensed to cultivate high-THC cannabis.
Under the model, eGrowers buy a “plant category” from Juicy Fields which would then buy a plant from one of its partners. The partner would sell the final THC product to a third party and the profit would be distributed among the partner, Juicy Fields and the eGrower.
eGrowers were promised returns on the purchases of their plants in as little as 108 days after funds were received and clones were planted. Many eGrowers received profits from their investments early on, likely from funds invested by new eGrowers being passed on. However, many are now questioning whether any cannabis was ever planted at all.
Snapshot of Juicy Fields’ cannabis product offerings from its Green Paper.
Over the last two weeks, Juicy Fields seems to have moved millions of dollars of investments from its accounts, with some estimates counting up to $17m.
Early on in the developments, former-CEO Wille van der Merwe, who was at the company for just over 40 days, claimed in a letter that he was hired to make changes which were subsequently refused.
The letter states: “I wrote quite a strongly worded memorandum to the board members and owners (the ones that I was told were the owners), advising them to urgently address issues such as securing cannabis plants, preparing and filing the requisite applications and paperwork with the authorities in various countries in Europe such as Germany, to become operationally compliant, and to change the product offering from an investment product to a commodity product offering, which it essentially should be.”
After his departure due to “poor management”, van der Merwe claimed some members of the Juicy Fields team began implementing the recommended technical changes which led to the site being closed down, and that an improved site would be back up and running with investors able to access their assets by August.
This has, of course, been questioned by investors, who are now being asked by Juicy Fields through its website to provide personal details in order to receive their money back. Given the developments, many investors believe this could be part of the scam.
Former CEO, Alan Glanse, has made remarks in a Telegram channel through video claiming bad actors are trying to discredit the company however, Glanse has not responded to requests for comment.
