Former Vancouver Canucks owner and high-profile businessman and philanthropist Arthur Griffiths is among several company directors of three B.C.-based companies facing allegations of illegally distributed securities and/or conducting unregistered activity on behalf of a cannabis firm.
The B.C. Securities Commission (BCSC) is alleging Griffiths, Hani El Rayess and Christine Mah were directors of Vancouver-based RoccaVerde Wellness Corporation (formerly known as World Farms Corp.) while it illegally distributed securities, between 2018 and 2019.
The company obtained $316,100 in proceeds by distributing its securities 23 times to 22 investors without filing a prospectus, a formal document providing details of an investment, and the trio of directors “authorized, permitted or acquiesced in the illegal distributions,” the commission claimed.
RoccaVerde represented itself as a global cannabis company with projects in Italy, Croatia, Jamaica and South Africa, the commission stated in a news release.
Meanwhile, the commission stated Vancouver-based Bullseye Consulting Inc. and its director, Spencer Reid Coulter, and Garden Bay-based Grand Lodge Capital Inc. and its director, Nigel Alexander Horsley, solicited and referred investors to buy RoccaVerde’s shares. Neither of the companies nor their directors were registered under the B.C. Securities Act.
It is specifically alleged in a BCSC hearing notice Griffiths “authorized, permitted or acquiesced in RoccaVerde’s contraventions of section 61 of the Act with respect to 10 distributions of RoccaVerde securities for proceeds of $192,600.”
Griffiths currently runs consulting and lobbying firm Arthur Griffiths and Associates.
When reached by telephone Wednesday, Griffiths was initially perplexed, having only learned of the hearing notice Wednesday. Griffiths said he had been contacted by the commission last year and said he would need to discuss the situation with his attorney.
“I will be defending this, that’s for sure,” said Griffiths.
World Farms Corp. appointed Griffths president and CEO on Feb. 26, 2019, per a Globe Newswire statement.
“His experience is deep and wide-ranging: from corporate matters and finance to family businesses, family wealth management and related succession planning,” the company stated, noting Griffiths chaired the Vancouver/Whistler 2010 Bid Society, is a British Columbia Sports Hall of Fame inductee and a recipient of the W.A.C Bennett Award, for contributions to sport.
On June 27, 2019, Proactive Investor reported World Farms Corp. was part of Crop Infrastructure Corp.’s portfolio and intended to go public. Crop became Vert Infrastructure Ltd., which applied for bankruptcy in 2021 after trading of its shares was halted in 2020 for “failure to maintain exchange requirements.”
The allegations are not proven and a hearing panel is expected to hear from both sides, on a date to be determined. If any allegations are proven, the respondent could face administrative monetary penalties or sanctions prohibiting certain activity in the public markets.
