LOS ANGELES – The founder and chairman of Hightimes Holding Corp. could face a statutory maximum of five years in federal prison after pleading guilty in January to participating in a criminal conspiracy to inflate sales of the company’s stock.
In December, federal authorities charged Adam Levin, 45, of Marina Del Rey, California, with one felony count of conspiracy to tout securities for undisclosed compensation. According to his plea, Levin admitted paying more than $150,000 to Jonathan William Mikula, a securities analyst and publisher of the “Palm Beach Venture” newsletter. Levin additionally participated in providing Mikula with “tens of thousands of dollars” in entertainment. To conceal the scheme, Levin and his associates entered into a sham marketing agreement and routed the payments through a Canadian bank to a shell company in Canada.
In return for the money and other perks, Mikula promoted Hightimes stock to the newsletter’s nationwide audience while telling readers he had no financial relationship with Levin or Hightimes. Federal law requires full and public disclosure from anyone who receives payment—directly or indirectly—for publishing, publicizing, or circulating any advertisement or communication that describes a security offered for sale.
Levin also admitted he lied to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) when he told investigators his associates concocted and deployed the pay-for-play scheme without his knowledge.
Prosecutors said the under-the-table deal helped Hightimes raise at least $6 million from stock sales.
Levin was charged alongside Mikula; Christian Fernandez, who authorities said acted as a money launderer for the scheme; and Amit Raj Beri, a Beverly Hills businessman who brokered deals for undisclosed payments. Mikula, Fernandez, and Beri each pleaded guilty last year and are scheduled to be sentenced in July.
Hightimes, which saw its assets sold off piecemeal earlier this year after the company entered receivership, was the parent company of High Times and other magazines, several websites and trade shows, and a now-closed chain of High Times dispensaries. The magazine’s website, which has not been updated since June 2024, now is registered to an intellectual property law firm in Washington, DC.
The current case is not the first time Hightimes and Levin have run afoul of U.S. securities laws. In September 2023, the two paid the SEC more than $660,000 to settle charges of “fraudulent conduct in the offer or sale of securities” after they continued to promote the company’s stock as a Regulation A offering even though the registration had been revoked.
