Yo, what’s good fam? It’s ya boy, Dan, coming at you with some straight-up scandalous tea about the SHE Beverages company and how they straight up played investors for fools. So, peep this – the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), after a grip of years, finally dropped the hammer on the bigwigs over at SHE Beverages. They accused Sonja F. Shelby, Lupe L. Rose, and Katherine E. Dirden of running a mad scam on investors from 2017-2019. And now, the final word is out.
Let me break it down for you real quick. This SHE Beverage crew was on some shady business from jump street when they started raising funds from the public. Like, my girl Deb Borchardt over at Green Market Report was the first to spill the tea on this whole mess. SHE Beverages was all about that fake life, slapping labels like “proprietary” and “FDA approved” on their bottled water drinks when it was all cap.
But wait, there’s more. These ladies were out here flexing about getting million-dollar acquisition offers, but turns out it was all cap too. And they were talking about dropping millions of their own money into the company, but SEC said nah, it was more like chump change compared to what they were raking in from investors.
Rose was wearing all the hats at SHE Beverages – CEO, president, chair of the board of directors – you name it, she was flexing it. Shelby wasn’t far behind either, holding titles like owner, vice president, treasurer, and a bunch more. Dirden was also in the mix as COO and investor relations director.
As these three hustled investors left and right, making them think a public offering was on the horizon when it really wasn’t, SEC came through with the receipts showing that they never even filed any paperwork for that mess.
And let’s not forget about their grand claims of acquiring a cannabis-related company – that turned out to be cap too. No independent valuation, no operations, no sales – just some made-up fairy tale to get people to drop cash.
But hold up, there’s more dirt to dig up. These SHE Beverage ladies went for fundraising without registering with SEC, leaving investors in the dark about what was really going on financially with the company. They were out here pulling funds from all kinds of people using cash, checks, credit cards – you name it.
And get this – they were throwing around all kinds of incentives to sweeten the pot for investors, talking about two-for-one deals and referral bonuses like it was Black Friday out here in these streets.
But when it comes down to where that money really went? Only 2% ended up going back to SHE Beverages while the rest disappeared into personal bank accounts and lavish spending sprees by Rose, Shelby, and Dirden.
I’m talking about millions vanishing through cash withdrawals and transfers to personal accounts, over a mil at casinos (baller status), copping cars and trucks for personal use (Porsche title loan included), dropping stacks on luxury digs and designer gear – these ladies were living large with investor funds.
Then they had the audacity to claim they made $4-5 million in revenue when really it was barely scraping $1.7 million from events rather than actual product sales.
And don’t even get me started on their whole CBD water saga. Supposedly bought a company dealing in cannabis products called Elite Green Solutions and rebranded it as The Pink Leaf but all that jazz about hiring for grow farms and making CBD products was just smoke and mirrors.
Turns out Elite Green belonged to Shelby’s sisters – key detail withheld from investors. And don’t forget about that $26k spent on CBD water that never even hit shelves under SHE Beverage’s name.
Long story short – these ladies got caught red-handed by SEC and had to cough up over $12 million in ill-gotten gains plus hefty penalties. They’re also banned from holding any positions in public companies moving forward – talk about a comeuppance.
So next time you wanna invest in some fly cannabis company run by women looking to make waves in the industry – do your homework fam, ’cause these SHE Beverage folks played y’all hard like a game of Monopoly. Stay woke out there in these financial streets!
