There are many ways to make money. Some are legal, some aren’t. Brendan Kennedy is one of those people who likes to make money through both ways, legal and illegal.
His company, Privateer Holdings Inc has been involved in too many lawsuits. They have scammed investors, duped a celebrity, and have mistreated their employees for far too long.
The following column will explore Brendan Kennedy, his net worth, and the latest tricks his companies have pulled recently:
About Brendan Kennedy
Privateer Holdings, Tilray, Net Worth, Salary, Etc.
Brendan Kennedy is the co-founder and CEO of Privateer Holdings with Christian Groh and Michael Blue according to the Brendan Kennedy LinkedIn profile. He is also the former CEO of Tilray. Brendan Kennedy net worth is estimated to be $2.5 billion.
He has sold Tilray stock worth over $125 million in the last couple of years. And his company compensates him well as the estimated Brendan Kennedy salary is in millions.
However, the actual Brendan Kennedy net worth could be substantially higher because of the various scams he has performed in the last few years. From duping the minority investors of Tilray to acquiring a company through unethical practices, Brendan has done it all.
He lives in Seattle with his family. Brendan had founded Privateer Holdings in 2011.
$150 Million Lawsuit Against Brendan Kennedy’s Venture
The Privateer Holdings Lawsuit
Brendan Kennedy’s companies, Tilray and Privateer Holdings have been a part of multiple lawsuits. Because of their unethical business practices and strategies.
What is Bankruptcy?
Through the legal process of bankruptcy, individuals or other entities that are unable to pay their creditors back can seek partial or complete relief from their debts. Bankruptcy usually happens by a court order that is frequently requested by the debtor.
In 2019, Saavy Naturals had filed a $150 million lawsuit against Tilray for trying to bankrupt their subsidiary, Trimax Corp. Why was Brand Kennedy trying to bankrupt that firm? According to Saavy Naturals, Tilray wanted to acquire that company at a lower valuation to complement their line of CBD infused products.
Saavy Naturals became quite popular when it appeared on the hit TV show Shark Tank. They alleged that Tilray ran a scam through Brenan Kennedy’s Privateer Holdings to persuade the owners to bankrupt that firm so they could overtake them cheaply.
The Trimax shareholders have mentioned in their lawsuit that not a single penny of the deal went to the creditors. Privateer had proposed to take Trimax corp private with a lower valuation than the company’s existing market value. However, Privateer Holdings convinced the Trimax CEO to go through with the deal as he wouldn’t have to pay the creditors or the shareholders.
But that was just the tip of the iceberg. Then, a plan was proposed where Eko Holdings LLC would acquire Trimax from Saavy Naturals at an astonishingly low price of $70,000.
Due to these events, Trimax filed a $150 million lawsuit against Tilray.
This isn’t the only lawsuit Tilray is involved in.
Investors Sue Brendan Kennedy’s Privateer Holdings
Sued By The Investors
In June 2021, the Delaware Chancery Court ruled that the investors suing Privateer Holdings Inc can proceed with their lawsuit. The lawsuit alleges that Privateer Holdings had completed a downstream merger at the expense of Tilray’s investors.
The founders of Privateer Holdings were controlling Tilray indirectly. And they performed the downstream merger to get tax benefits without compensating the investors appropriately.
The downstream merger happened in 2019 where Tilray canceled the stock Privateer Holdings owned and then reissued it to Privateer’s investors.
They did all this to get tax benefits and to avoid paying the minority investors at Tilray.
Privateer Holdings Settled a Case with Master P
The Celebrity Conflict
Recently, prominent public personality Master P settled a case with Privateer Holdings. He had filed a lawsuit against the private equity firm because the company had breached its agreement to market and produce his cannabis line.
Percy Miller, also known as, Master P is a well-known rapper and celebrity. He had filed this suit in 2017 alleging that the cannabis private equity firm had breached their oral agreement to market his product line.
Certainly, Privateer Holdings Inc didn’t want to risk losing the suit so they settled the case. Chances are, Brendan’s company made the promises to Master P so they can get free publicity. They only wanted to use Master P’s name to promote their own brands.
All of these lawsuits show that Brendan Kennedy’s companies have a history of operating unethically and betraying vendors and investors.
Unfit Investor According To ebbu Founder Dooma Wendschuh
Unfit Investor According To ebbu Founder Dooma Wendschuh
Call it ironic or embarrassing, but one of Brendan’s colleagues mistakenly disqualified him as an investor in a public event just a while ago.
Dooma Wendschuh is the founder of ebbu, a cannabis company. He was speaking at an event where Brendan was also a guest. Dooma was talking about how to pick suitable investors. And his pro tip was to google a potential investor’s name with the word “scam”.
If you find negative results on Google for this search, it means you should avoid the investor.
I don’t know about others but this method clearly disqualifies Brendan Kennedy.
You’ll find millions of results if you’d google Brendan Kennedy scam on Google:
So, even his colleague says that he is an investor you should avoid.
Tilray: A Major Stock Bubble Scam
Tilray can easily become one of the biggest stock bubbles in US history. Since they went public, their share has been jumping at an astonishingly rapid pace. Even though the company was generating losses and wasn’t making any profitable moves, its stock was sky-rocketing.
(Source)
The company’s stock had jumped from $30 on August 20th to $154 in September when the DEA granted them approval to provide THC capsules to UC San Diego. The approval was only for a clinic trial on the medicinal application of THC. This wouldn’t provide any revenues to the firm but the stock jumped regardless.
The stock later rose to $300 in price, giving the company a market cap of $27.6 billion. This is when the company’s operating loss had quintupled in a year. Their losses were $2.3 million in Q2 2017 and they grew to $11 million in Q2 2018.
Note that Tilray’s insider investors held 83 million of the total 92 million shares of the company at this time.
This is not an unprecedented event. It’s similar to the dot com stock bubble of early 2000. In that time, CMRC’s stock was priced at $200 a share then it rose to $600 and fell off from there to never recover.
Toxic Workplace Of Brendan Kennedy’s Company
Apart from scamming his investors, Brendan also abuses his staff by providing them with unfair treatment, horrible management, and terrible work conditions. I’m not the one saying all this. It’s his own staff.
The following Tilray reviews paint a terrible picture of what it’s like to work under this guy:
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