As Austrian Kurier reports, the case of a cannabis investment company from Klagenfurt, My First Plant, could involve fraud of over four million euros, or perhaps even more. And that’s not all.
What is the case with My First Plant?
My First Plant was offering its customers the possibility of money investments in legal CBD hemp plants. Investors pay for the plant and cultivation, and the company takes care of planting and sales, for example to the cosmetics industry. That sounds interesting and as we know, hemp can be an opportunity. They called this system the “best invention since the watering can.”
Austrian institutions were silent. However, the German consumer organisation Stiftung Warentest issued a warning regarding investing in My First Plant’s initiative, even before the scandal occurred.
A former employee of My First Plant claims that the company sold 70,000 cannabis plants, for over four million euros. Additionally they distributed 30,000 indoor plants at prices of up to 900 euros each. However, there are doubts if the company was actually cultivating the plants. My First Plant did not provide any evidence, although investors shared many requests for photos. What is more, it is doubtful whether there is a market demand for the approximately 50 tons of CBD hemp.
Current status of the cannabis fraud
The Klagenfurt Public Prosecutor’s Office confirmed Kurier as following:
“The case of My First Plant is pending with us; it started with a financial audit, and a voluntary disclosure was made.”
Moreover:
“There is also a complaint from a victim in Germany.”
According to the judicial authorities, there are pending proceedings. The investigation includes two investigators from the State Criminal Police Office in Klagenfurt and the Federal Bureau for Combating Corruption (BAK). They already have the whole history. Interestingly, an important My First Plant employee spent several years in a Swiss prison for fraud. Moreover, the company’s managing director was previously a proxy at EXW-Wallet, which is a cryptocurrency company.
My First Plant has recently claimed that it hasn’t been able to plant hemps. It was due to the bad weather since March. Moreover, someone secretly grew corn on the leased field. According to the company’s claims, the media is not telling the truth.