business – Foldenauer

NFL Teammates Turned Cannabis Investors Face Lawsuit from Business Partners

September 29, 2021 by foldenauer.law

The success of California’s legal cannabis industry has assuaged the fears of many skeptics who, for decades, argued that legalizing cannabis for recreational and medical purposes would invite crime and lawlessness. To a great extent, the business disputes that have inevitably arisen in the cannabis industry resemble the business disputes that inevitably arise in any industry. Business partners sue each other over issues such as breach of fiduciary duty, breach of contract, and misuse of company funds, just like business partners who sell much less controversial products. California’s cannabis laws seem to be getting it right; it is the confusion and hypocrisy over cannabis going on in other states that complicates matters. It is not hard to understand, from a purely financial perspective, why someone with access to a legal supply of cannabis, would be tempted to divert some of it illegally to other states which barely even have a medical cannabis program to speak of. If your cannabis business plans are going up in smoke because things have deteriorated between you and your business partner, contact a San Diego business partnership dispute lawyer.

Genetixs Sues Two Partners for Selling Cannabis on Black Market

The struggles of professional athletes to transition into the business world after their playing careers end are well documented, but Julio Jones and Roddy White chose to get into the legal cannabis industry in California as opportunities were opening up. Jones and White played together for the Atlanta Falcons until White retired and Jones moved to the Tennessee Titans. Later, they both became partners in Genetixs, a California-based legal cannabis company. According to a lawsuit filed by Genetixs in July 2021, Jones and White conspired with John Van Beek and Shaun Van Beek to sell cannabis on the black market out of a Genetixs facility in Desert Hot Springs. Meanwhile, Jones and White allegedly stopped reporting sales in March.

Genetixs is also suing John Van Beek; it hired him in 2020 to work as an on-site manager and operator, but it fired him in March 2021 after an inspection revealed numerous violations at the facility. The lawsuit also alleges that Van Beek and his son disabled security cameras at the facility to enable the illegal operations to proceed. It accuses them of breach of contract and failure to report cannabis sales. The State of California has not pressed criminal charges against any of the defendants in the lawsuit. A lawyer for Jones and White told the Daily Mail that the lawsuit is retaliation for a previous lawsuit that Jones and White filed against Genetixs.

Contact Foldenauer Law Group About Business Partnerships After a Pro Sports Career

Choosing the right business lawyer can make or break a retired professional athlete’s success in business. A business dispute lawyer can help you get out of bad business deals before they cause heavy financial losses. Contact Foldenauer Law Group, APLC in San Diego, California to discuss your case.

Hiring a Cybersecurity Team is Cheaper Than Dealing With Liability Lawsuits

September 17, 2021August 25, 2021 by foldenauer.law

The thought of so many entities possessing your identity information and financial data is terrifying. Think about all the websites on which you have ever entered your credit card information and date of birth; if one of those websites is hacked, the bad guys can use your information to do all sorts of financial damage. As a business owner, though, you have a bigger worry. What if thousands of people, everyone who has ever worked for your company and every customer who has ever kept their credit card information on file with you, get their information stolen when your company’s computers get hacked, and they all blame you? The money it will cost you to fight or settle all those lawsuits will be significant, and it could jeopardize your company’s ability to stay afloat. If you are facing liability lawsuits after your company’s data was compromised, contact a San Diego business law attorney.

Why Data Breaches are a Nightmare for Businesses

People who suffer economic harm because of negligence on the part of a business have the right to file a liability lawsuit against the business and seek damages. Negligence means that the business breached the duty of care to use reasonable caution to protect customers from harm, economic and otherwise. You often hear about customers suing companies after getting injured at a retail store or restaurant for failing to keep the premises safe. If there is an account takeover or data breach at your company, the customers whose data is stolen can sue you for the financial losses they suffered because of the hacking incident. If they can argue that you failed to use reasonable caution to protect their data, the court may award them damages.

Cybersecurity: An Ounce of Prevention is Worth a Pound of Cure

The best way to avoid lawsuits about stolen customer data is to beef up your cybersecurity. There is no excuse not to use multi-factor authentication and to require strong passwords. All but the smallest businesses need more than one person whose job is to protect employees’ and customers’ data. Even if hiring full-time cybersecurity experts is beyond your budget, you should have an external cybersecurity firm perform vulnerability assessments of your systems periodically. When the WannaCry ransomware attack targeted large companies in 2017, some of the companies got sued. The basis for many of these lawsuits stemmed from the companies’ failure to update and implement the Microsoft patch to protect against the malware.But the companies with adequate cybersecurity standards and assessments had applied the patch and protected themselves.

Contact Foldenauer Law Group About Data Breach Claims

A business lawyer can help you defend your business against claims by people whose data was stolen in an account takeover of your company’s systems. Contact Foldenauer Law Group, APLC in San Diego, California to discuss your case.

Resort to the Law, Not to Lawlessness, When Business Partnerships Go Bad

September 17, 2021August 13, 2021 by foldenauer.law

More than half of all business partnerships end with the business dissolving because of a dispute between the owners. The business partners who stay together until they retire or until they agree that one partner will buy out the other’s ownership interest are the exception to the rule; they only account for about 30% of cases. Business partnership breakups that are messy enough to require the intervention of a judge are about as common as divorces messy enough to require the intervention of a judge.

Take the dispute between two owners of real estate properties rented out to legal cannabis dispensaries described below as an example. If you no longer see eye to eye with your business partner, contact a San Diego business partnership dispute lawyer before your business partner shows their worst side.

Lawsuit Over San Diego Cannabis Businesses Turns Ugly

Salam Razuki and Ninus Malan owned several legal cannabis businesses in the San Diego area together, but by 2018 their partnership had gone bad. Razuki sued Malan for control of the Balboa Avenue Cooperative in Kearny Mesa. While the lawsuit played out in court, Razuki took to intimidating Malan by hiring gang members to threaten him and steal his mail. In August, Malan filed a restraining order against Razuki.

Razuki and two other business partners, Sylvia Gonzales and Elizabeth Juarez, conspired to hire a hitman to kill Malan. Razuki said that he was tired of his disputes with Malan in civil court costing so much money. They met with the hitman early in the fall of 2018 and discussed a plan where the hitman would persuade Malan to travel with him to Tijuana in November, at which point the dirty deed would take place. Gonzales went across the street to Golden Bloom, another cannabis dispensary the parties owned, and withdrew $1,000 in cash, which she gave to the hitman as a deposit.

As it turned out, the “hitman” was actually an FBI informant. In November, the informant met with Razuki and claimed to have killed Malan, After which, the informant arrested Razuki, who was later charged with conspiracy to commit murder. Then, in August 2019, Malan filed a civil lawsuit against Razuki, seeking money damages for the emotional distress Razuki had caused him.

Contact Foldenauer Law Group About Bitter Disputes Between Business Partners

Most breakups of business partnerships do not devolve into physical violence, but they can still get very unpleasant. A business dispute lawyer can help you resolve your differences with the business partner from whom you have been trying to separate yourself. Contact Foldenauer Law Group, APLC in San Diego, California to discuss your case.

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