Lawsuit Overview
September 4, 2020 - An amended consolidated complaint was filed.
April 15, 2020 - An investor in shares of iAnthus Capital Holdings, Inc. (OTC: ITHUF) filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York over alleged violations of Federal Securities Laws by iAnthus Capital Holdings, Inc. in connection with certain allegedly false and misleading statements made between May 14, 2018 and April 6, 2020. iAnthus Capital Holdings, Inc. owns and operates licensed cannabis cultivation, processing, and dispensary facilities in the United States. iAnthus Capital Holdings, Inc. reported that its annual Total Revenue rose from $2.4 million in 2017 to $3.4 million in 2018, and that its Net Loss increased from $13.71 million in 2017 to $62.02 million in 2018. In May 2018, iAnthus Capital Holdings, Inc entered into the $50 million 2018 Debenture Agreement with Gotham Green Partners (GGP). Among other things, that agreement provided for the withholding and escrow of $5,722,222.22 from the 2018 Debenture proceeds to pay one year's interest on the 2018 Debentures in the event of iAnthus' inability to make its interest payments under the agreement.
On September 30, 2019, iAnthus Capital Holdings, Inc and GGP entered into the Amended Debenture Agreement, which provided an additional $20 million to the Company. The Amended Debenture Agreement included the provision from the 2018 Debenture Agreement that provided for the withholding and escrow of $5,722,222.22 to pay one year's interest under the Amended Debenture Agreement in the event that iAnthus was unable to make the required interest payments.
On April 6, 2020, iAnthus Capital Holdings, Inc. disclosed that it had failed to make certain interest payments, citing the decline in the overall public equity cannabis markets, coupled with the extraordinary market conditions that began in Q1 2020 due to the novel coronavirus. iAnthus also revealed an internal investigation regarding related party transactions involving the Company's Chief Executive Officer, Hadley Ford. Shares of iAnthus Capital Holdings, Inc. (OTC: ITHUF) declined from $7.01 per share on September 2018 to as low as $0.156 per share on April 6, 2020.
According to the complaint the plaintiff alleges on behalf of purchasers of iAnthus Capital Holdings, Inc. (OTC: ITHUF) common shares between May 14, 2018 and April 6, 2020, that the defendants violated Federal Securities Laws.
More specifically, the plaintiff claims that between May 14, 2018 and April 6, 2020, the defendants made materially false and misleading statements, and omitted materially adverse facts, about the Company's ability to pay its interest obligations under various debenture agreements, and that as a result of defendants' alleged false and misleading statements, the Company's stock traded at artificially inflated prices between May 14, 2018 and April 6, 2020.