According to his own admission, Kai Friedrich Niermann, a German lawyer specializing in the cannabis industry with his own shingle at KFN+, worked directly with the Juicy Fields scam.
We have been asserting this for well over a year since our involvement in the Juicy Fields case, and against a raft of industry rumour and scorn that starts with “but there is no document.”
As of June 6, just several weeks before the last ICBC conference in Berlin, Friedrich Niermann issued his own statement. We are highlighting it here and commenting on the same.
Business With the Company
According to Friedrich Niermann, he worked as a paid lawyer for Juicy Fields between July 2021 and October 2021. According to his statement “Juicy Fields was “looking for business areas, according to expertise on the legal framework in Germany was needed. As an expert in this area, I was therefore commissioned to compile the relevant legal information for the medical cannabis market as well as the recreational cannabis market.”
Our response? As an expert in the legal and evolving cannabis sectors in Germany, there was no way that Friedrich Niermann could not have known that his new client was a scam. There were many indications, but one of the most important was that there was almost no way that a company founded in April 2020 could have gotten the legal licenses (even with approved strategic partner distributors) to import new strains of cannabis flower into the country by July 2021. Even if they had, Friedrich Niermann should have asked to see evidence of previous importing before he took the job on. One of our witnesses also reports that there was no indication, as of June 2021, that the company was in any way legitimate. For one thing, beyond the licensing of new strains, it is impossible to “crowd finance” the GMP side of the industry.
Beyond this, it also shows a clear conflict of interest between Friedrich Niermann, the ICBC and Juicy Fields as of August 2021. It also partly explains why Alex Rogers did not investigate claims that the company was a scam at this time, although of course, there were other lawyer-sponsors close to this who are also partly responsible (see Dentons for starters).
Friedrich Niermann also states that he was not paid for his appearance on what was absolutely a sales pitch to Juicy Fields investors, albeit focussed on “legalization” that was widely distributed on Facebook.
It does not matter. As a lawyer, in both instances, he has a responsibility to vet clients, and certainly not promote them as was certainly the case in the social media posting in question, no matter the topic. Just his presence gave legitimacy to the entire premise, which of course is what Juicy Fields intended to do. In fact, it was precisely his appearance on that webinar that persuaded multiple investors that he spoke for and on behalf of the company, and as a result, gave them the confidence that this was not a fraud. Just on negligence grounds as well as the rules of the Bar, neither kind of behaviour, along with sponsoring conferences with unvetted potentially fraudulent companies, is specifically forbidden, and with good reason.
Beyond this, Friedrich Niermann also admits that he has been “released” from his confidentiality agreement in working for the company.
Our response? So what? The company itself was fraudulent. There is no way anyone can prove that this is all he did for Juicy Fields, much less what he was renumerated.
Beyond this, we are challenging the overall veracity of his statements, starting with the fact that we have witnesses, from within the industry, who are ready to testify in court that he did far more than he claims for Juicy Fields. This includes taking business development trips abroad, representing the company as a legitimate player in the industry, and even attempting to negotiate deals for the company not to create offtake agreements but rather just install cameras and banners over questionable cultivation facilities and feed the video into unsuspecting investors via the website.
It is our witnesses who claim Friedrich Niermann was paid a significant amount, in cash, delivered in shopping bags.
Beyond this, it is also clear that at least several individuals also on our target list (and his associates, starting with Lisa Haag) have not only denied that Friedrich Niermann was in any way involved in Juicy Fields, including after this statement was issued, but actively defamed those who stated otherwise (including multiple clients and members of our team) and even taken legal action against those who have claimed otherwise.
We are delighted that Friedrich Niermann decided to “set the record straight,” but we don’t think that this statement is in any way detrimental to our cause, claims or where we are taking this investigation. In fact, it only proves we are right.
Finally, we note there is no apology from Friedrich Niermann to the victims of the scam who he helped, even if according to his own statement, unwittingly defraud. At best, his involvement with the firm, and failure to speak out against it, helped the fraud proceed internationally, starting with Germany.
We are more than happy to work with Mr. Friedrich Niermann, or any other individual or company we have named on our list of facilitators, should he decide to do the right thing.
In the meantime, the only thing that Mr. Friedrich Niermann has done with this statement is verify that our claims so far have been correct, and that per our definition, he certainly was a facilitator of the fraud. We are forwarding his statements to the police and will keep them on file for our own legal actions.
