SEC Weedmaps to pay $1.5 million for ‘misleading’ statements on user numbers

Green Market Report..

California-based WM Technology (Nasdaq: MAPS) has agreed to pay the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission $1.5 million to settle a cease-and-desist order from the agency that alleged several securities violations, particularly that the company misled investors on how many monthly users were actually using its website in 2021 and 2022.

According to an order from the SEC, the cannabis advertising giant issued “untrue and misleading” monthly active user (MAU) metrics during quarterly reports and earnings calls between when it went public in June 2021 and late 2022, when the company finally discontinued its reliance on the metric following an internal complaint, Law360 reported.

The SEC charged that Weemaps executives padded the user stats to bolster its apparent performance to investors. The company’s former CEO Chris Beals and former CFO Arden Lee both misled securities regulators and investors on the strength of its MAU numbers and the fact that the supposedly growing metric included supposed site visitors that were redirected to Weedmaps.com from pop-up ads on other websites, the SEC said.

Read the full report at 

https://www.greenmarketreport.com/weedmaps-to-pay-sec-1-5-million-for-misleading-statements-on-user-numbers/

Also our prior reports

Article: At Least We Now Know Why Weedmaps Didn’t Want to Get Rid of the Illegal Listings on Their Website

Weedmaps At It Again: Now The Canadians Have Had Enough Of Weedmaps Registering Illegal Dispensaries

Weedmaps Stops Listing Illegal Michigan Cannabis Businesses

Michigan presses Weedmaps on continuing to list illegal dispensaries after agreed implementation date