The Juicy Fields DAO team reached out to Lars Olofsson and team as well as Deutsche Welle – journalists behind the “Cannabis Cowboys” true crime podcast to invite everyone to a special trip to Africa to prove they were actually “growing cannabis.” This is our response
The Invite
On March 14, we, along with the reporting team behind Cannabis Cowboys at German media firm Deutsche Welle received the following invite by email from an email address called “press@juicyholdings.com.”
The title of the correspondence was “South Africa trip, not for cowards.”
The text reads as below:
“A heartfelt welcome to former and possibly future e-growers as represented by Lars, Daniel, and the Cannabis Cowboys.
Here’s your juicy DAO team’s plan for our joint trip to South Africa, where we’ll not only get to know each other better but also show you how the rebirth of crowdgrowing (SIC) is going to happen and the ins and outs, which will surely make your customers and podcast listeners that much happier. We are not proposing to sue Facebook, we are proposing a real solution to this crisis, and you have the brilliant opportunity to witness it.
The journey will begin on 27 March, with a general meeting with DAO and seed members, as well as producers.
From 28 to 30 March, we will visit the production sites together and take a look at the stages of progress at each site.
On 31 March we will summarize the results of the visit, outline key points to be reached, and discuss the situation with users of the old notorious platform. 1 April departure, and further cooperation, through the agreed channels.
Accommodation, transport, meals, and respect for a safe stay will be provided.
You have 24 hours to confirm, and this is something you may not want to undertake, but if you do act as we do in the interests of the whole community, (emphasis in the original email) then you will have made the right choice, Africa awaits us.
Hope to hear from you soon!
JF DAO.
The Response
The internal litigation team working with Lars Olofsson has already discussed the idea. Generally, here is our decision and the reasons for it.
Decision: No.
Reasons: There were many, but here are the top ones.
- We do not trust the Juicy Fields DAO. We do not know who they are, where they are from, and given the confusion and lies so far, why would this change.
- The idea of going to South Africa with people whose identities are unknown to look at some cannabis cultivation is a stupid idea.
- We have no idea how images or other media from the trip, would be used. We do not want to give this group any credibility because they do not have it – starting with continuing with claims that the kinds of investment they say can be realized from their cannabis cultivation model is absolutely not possible. Here is why.
- Properly certified cannabis from South Africa is currently selling at between 1.5 euro per gram to over 3 euros a gram (once EU GMP certified). Given the margins of qualified distributors in Germany alone, there is zero way that the kinds of returns the group is promising will be possible.
- We do not know of a single distributor who is willing to work with the firm in the aftermath of the investor meltdown.
- There is still no certification of their own, revamped website. This includes under German law, the contact information of those involved, a brick and mortar address and a bank account. DAO “culture” and “business practice” notwithstanding.
Media and Investor Advisory
We strongly advise other firms, including media outlets, to refuse this invitation on the basis of safety if nothing else. When something goes wrong in the South African bush, you don’t have an easy exit route, under the best of circumstances. These, we believe, do not qualify in this situation, starting with the identity of the hosts.
Firms that do decide to take Juicy Fields up on the offer should also contact us before they go to implement some basic safety measures as well as obtain a list of questions that will show that this is, yet again, another scam. And a dangerous one at that.
Individual investors should be highly cautious and consider all safety issues, including what happens to you if you get stranded in another country with no money.
However, ultimately it is up to anyone to decide for themselves. We have extensive experience in these kind of scams and the people behind them. Knowing what we know about the masterminds behind Juicy Fields, which has not only been confirmed by our research but others (notably the journalistic team behind the Deutsche Welle podcast series Cannabis Cowboys) it is our strongest recommendation to not in any fashion get involved with this offer – both from a safety perspective, but also because of the risk of being used for continued scams. This could be a continuation of the current scam, to promote new scams, or falsely convince scammed investors there is a refund. Anyone who joins this event risks being used in criminal activity of several sorts.