Imagine being able to invest in homegrown cannabis without ever touching a plant – all legal, all online. You pick your plants on a website, a company grows them in real greenhouses, and when the crop sells, you pocket a share of the profits. With the cannabis market on fire and returns looking sky-high, why wouldn’t you double down – or even invest your life savings? Then one day, the company vanishes.
Well, that’s exactly what happened to thousands of people who collectively sank more than $700m into a venture called JuicyFields. The story behind it? Absolutely wild.
JuicyFields had all the right buzzwords: cannabis, crowdfunding, passive income, and European regulation. Based in Berlin, the start-up promised investors – sorry, “e-growers” – that by “sponsoring” medical cannabis plants, they could reap returns of up to 66% in just three months. The pitch was that you put down €50 per plant, JuicyFields would take care of the growing, and when the weed sold, you’d get paid.
And for a while, it worked. Between 2020 and 2022, thousands of investors across Europe, Africa, Latin America and even South Africa jumped in. Influencers were on board, the website looked slick, and there were real partnerships – or so it seemed. At its peak, JuicyFields claimed to have 500,000 investors and €2bn in assets under cultivation. Except … it was mostly smoke.
In mid-2022, the smoke cleared. JuicyFields’ social media channels went dark, the website went offline, and investors couldn’t withdraw funds. Panic set in. The founders were nowhere to be seen. Poof! Turns out, there was no licensed cannabis production on the scale it claimed, no audited financials, and many of its partners had never actually even signed on. Spanish authorities quickly labelled it a Ponzi scheme, and investigators estimate that more than €645m may have been lost.
The structure was pure scam artistry with a green twist – no board oversight, shell companies, a mix of real and fake executives, and wallets that were allegedly traced to Russian cybercriminals and money-laundering ops. Victims ranged from retirees and students to professionals who thought they were riding the next cannabis unicorn.
Even now, the fallout is messy. Multiple lawsuits have been filed across jurisdictions, but clawbacks are slow, and the money trail has gone cold. Authorities across Europe are still unravelling the web of bank accounts, crypto wallets, and offshore entities.
A man suspected of being the mastermind behind JuicyFields, Sergej B, a Russian national, was arrested in April 2024 in the Dominican Republic and is set to be tried in Spain, according to German news site DW.
Blowing smoke
The JuicyFields saga is a loud, green-tinted reminder – especially for South African investors – that hype is not the same as due diligence. Just because something ticks all the buzzword boxes (cannabis, crowdfunding, EU-regulated, passive income) doesn’t mean it’s safe. If you’re being promised 66% returns in three months from plants you’ve never seen, in a greenhouse you’ll never visit, via a website you can’t call – maybe take a beat.
No matter how trendy or global the opportunity looks, if there’s no transparency, no audited financials, and no regulatory oversight, it’s best to walk away. And above all, never bet the farm on a single scheme – especially one that smells this sweet.
In short, do your homework, verify the facts, and don’t get caught up in the hype. Let’s keep it real and keep it smart. After all, investing is a marathon, not a sprint.
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