Cookies executives accused of fraud
Prominent Cannabis brand Cookies faces third lawsuit alleging fraud and misconduct by executives.
Cookies, a prominent cannabis brand launched by San Francisco rapper Berner, is back in hot water after a new lawsuit was filed last week alleging the brand’s executives used fraud to “line their pockets” at the expense of partner businesses.
Last week’s lawsuit is the third to be filed against the company in 2023 alleging improper business tactics. A pair of lawsuits filed earlier this year accused Cookies’ executives of siphoning off millions of dollars in kickbacks, with one lawsuit from a group of investors accusing Cookies brass of using threats of physical violence to “strongarm and bully others into paying them millions of dollars in personal benefits and kickbacks.”
The latest lawsuit, filed last week in Los Angeles Superior Court by the cannabis breeding company SeedJunky, claims that Cookies and SeedJunky launched a joint venture named Minntz in 2019 to sell cannabis products. The lawsuit accuses Cookies executives of abusing their power to “cook Minntz’s books to SeedJunky’s detriment” and alleges that Cookies executives used fraud to “line their pockets” at SeedJunky’s expense.
Berner, whose legal name is Gilbert Milam Jr., is a named defendant in the latest lawsuit. SeedJunky alleges that Milam and other Cookies executives sold cannabis strains “stolen” from SeedJunky under the Cookies brand name and provided “false and fraudulent” financial data to SeedJunky staff.
A spokesperson for Cookies declined to comment to SFGATE on the litigation, but Milam forcefully defended himself in an Instagram video last week, claiming that the lawsuit was “completely false” and alleging that the founder of SeedJunky was upset over a separate business that failed.
“Dude’s been crying like a little b**** on Instagram for a long time, throwing subliminals. … You failed, bro, you failed. Seed Junky did not pop,” Milam said in a now-deleted Instagram video, according to MJBizDaily.
Attorneys representing SeedJunky declined to comment on Milam’s response or the lawsuit generally.
Milam grew up in San Francisco and launched his hip-hop career with the 2007 release of the “Track Money and Pack Money” album. He’s since released a string of albums that lean heavily into cannabis culture, with hit singles like “20 Joints” and “I Guess I’ll Smoke Again.” He launched his Cookies brand of cannabis and clothing in 2012, which has grown to become one of the industry’s most recognizable cannabis brands.
Milam has claimed that his stores make more than $100,000 a day and was featured on the cover of Forbes magazine last year. Forbes estimated that his company was “conservatively worth $150 million.” Cookies has dispensaries and retail locations around the world, including Berner’s on Haight in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood in San Francisco and on Sixth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan.
The next hearing in the SeedJunky case is scheduled for Sept. 15 in Los Angeles. There will be a separate hearing later this month in LA, on July 26, in relation to the investors’ lawsuit alleging kickbacks and threats of physical violence. The third lawsuit was voluntarily dismissed by the plaintiff, who said he expressed “sincere regret for any misunderstandings” caused by the lawsuit’s allegations.
