The thought was, on the floor of all of it, fairly authentic. Juicy Fields, a hashish “funding” platform, supposedly related micro traders with small hashish farmers to “fund” crop cultivation that was then legitimately offered. Traders had been instructed they may anticipate returns of as much as 66% on their funding in simply 90 days. Extra problematically, traders had been additionally allowed to deposit as much as 180.000 euros through financial institution switch or crypto funding within the platform with out going by means of required background checks which can be commonplace process in each respected banking and fintech apps.
Suspicious or not, for the previous 18 months or so, Juicy Fields was a giant factor within the Spanish talking world (in Latin America and in Spain). The corporate additionally established itself over the past yr and a half throughout Europe by throwing sponsorship cash at respectable festivals and gatherings. They established places of work in Holland and Germany.
Anybody with a banking, finance, or authorized background—past these within the trade who know the place authorized hashish comes from—had been suspicious proper from the beginning. However Juicy Fields was sensible. It made its presence felt in extremely efficient methods, notably in Europe, in 2021. Because the world opened up after the pandemic, the prospect to really feel joyful, social gathering with pals, and earn cash was a tantalizing draw.
If it sounds too good to be true, that’s as a result of it was.
Final Monday, on July 11, remaining firm employees went on strike. The corporate then froze money withdrawals, stopping traders from reclaiming their cash. Many had invested small quantities to start with and gone by means of a couple of profitable rounds the place they really noticed returns earlier than committing bigger sums. These funds have now disappeared, most likely without end. A number of traders reported taking out loans to fund their Juicy investments.
Firm execs steadily disappeared, together with scrubbing their profiles on-line. By Wednesday, the corporate’s intensive cyber community infrastructure was shut down. Movies have been faraway from social media, though their tantalizing guarantees and headlines nonetheless stay.
The Rip-off
Whereas the promotional movies have been principally faraway from the web, Juicy’s mantra remains to be on-line. “Develop hashish. It’s worthwhile!” was their favourite tagline.
Turning into a potpreneur by no means appeared really easy.
The truth is, the large Italian-Russian-Columbian “household” behind all of it was solely desirous about one factor. Gathering traders’ money. Juicy Fields claimed to put money into authorized hashish cultivation—though a number of trade watchdog teams and consultants discovered little proof of the identical. The corporate additionally strategically tried to align themselves with extra established and respected companies within the trade (though at this level all have put appreciable distance between themselves and Juicy Fields) to again up their claims.
The checking account of the agency was listed in Cyprus. This was not more than a “strategic determination” based on the communications director Zvevda Lauric in Could, which “has nothing to do with it being a tax haven.” Lauric has additionally subsequently left the corporate.
There have been a lot of questions, and lots of rumors, however no person appeared to have any solutions.
Earlier than the ultimate meltdown in the course of July, the fraud started to unravel after an expensive, Juicy-funded splash this spring at an trade occasion in Barcelona. Two Lamborghinis had been parked exterior the lavish social gathering with the motto “Foster the Future.” Attendees discovered themselves in a lavish fantasyland with good meals and alcohol that flowed freely, with fashions dressed as blue fairies and blond, wispy hostesses adorning the background. It was definitely fairly nevertheless it didn’t precisely encourage confidence that every one was kosher.
In Spain, the native press not less than started to report that the corporate was violating Spanish securities law. The German monetary regulator, BaFin, posted a warning on its web site on March 30 that the agency had printed no prospectus which is required for the sale of any type of safety. In consequence, German sales had been shut down.
By the end of May, the kitchen was getting unbearably scorching, and CEO Alan Glanse, stepped down. In June, he started publicly blaming a number of Russian nationals for the mounting issues on the firm and additional denying any accountability. It is a theme which others, nonetheless related to the corporate not less than on their web site, have echoed over the previous days—together with claiming that they themselves had been swindled.
By now, nevertheless, the home of playing cards on which the corporate constructed their premise has collapsed. The implosion of the rip-off has affected actually tens of hundreds of traders in Spain, Germany, the U.Okay., the Netherlands, France, Columbia, and the U.S.—all of whom have now had a shattering and disillusioning expertise with the wild and loopy world of legalizing hashish. In keeping with the Spanish media, which has been more and more overlaying the story, 5,000 Spaniards misplaced a whole bunch of hundreds of euros in what’s now being referred to as the most important crypto rip-off in Spanish historical past.
A Lack of Accountability
Apart from Eldiaro.es, up till this week, the hashish press stayed silent. No person dared to say something publicly. The corporate appeared to have an excessive amount of cash. Established hashish companies, together with a German distributor, announced multi-million euro deals with the company, some as late as this spring.
That, in fact, is now over.
Sadly, nevertheless, the true query nevertheless, isn’t whether or not it can occur once more, however when. There are a lot of within the trade who don’t need to be named who started discussing the matter privately as early as final yr however had been shut down by those that defended, invested in, or had been sponsored by the corporate.
At Europe’s new “Hashish Week” now underway in Berlin, sponsorship placards and title tags not bear the title of the now-defunct firm, though promoting together with their title remains to be unfold everywhere in the nation.
Many are fast to say, “I instructed you so.”
The issue, in fact, is that no person mentioned something quickly sufficient, publicly sufficient, and with sufficient authority to stop what many are calling the primary severe rip-off of the burgeoning and legalizing European trade.
Given what’s now taking place particularly in Germany, the thrill over leisure hashish reform is simply starting, together with the hype. In consequence, the Juicy Fields scandal stands out as the first of its form, however sadly, it gained’t be the final.