Berner “and his cohorts,” including Berling and Cookies executives Ian Habenicht and Lesjai Peronnet Chang “use the popularity of the Cookies brand to engage in pervasive self-dealing without regard to inherent conflicts of interest and to strongarm and bully others into paying them millions of dollars in personal benefits and kickbacks,” the suit alleges.
MJ Biz reports
Cookies faces lawsuits alleging kickbacks, personal enrichment
The two lawsuits, filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court, claim Cookies President Parker Berling and other board members and executives solicited and pocketed “kickbacks” in the form of cash, jewelry and other gifts.
This “hidden forced private tax,” in the words of one suit, is levied on anyone wishing to do business with California-based Cookies, both lawsuits allege.
Cookies’ CEO and co-founder, Gilbert Milam Jr., commonly known as Berner, is named in only one of the suits, which was filed by a pair of investors. He declined to comment to MJBizDaily.
Through a spokesperson, Cookies and Berling also declined to comment.
In a video posted to his Instagram account last week, Berner blasted the allegations as “bulls***” and an attempt to take Cookies away from him during a personal health crisis.
At the very least, the lawsuits claim to offer a rare peek inside the Cookies empire, which includes retail clothing stores in New York City and San Francisco as well as Cookies-branded stores in such U.S. states as California, Colorado, Florida, Michigan and Nevada as well as Canada and Thailand.
First lawsuit details
The first lawsuit was filed in December by Florida-based Cookies Retail Products (CRP), which claims to have secured in 2021 an exclusive license to manufacture, market and sell Cookies-branded delta-8 THC and CBD products.
In the suit, CRP Chief Executive Paul Rock claims Cookies executives sabotaged nascent deals, stole product and forced CRP to use Cookies-selected preferred suppliers before threatening to revoke CRP’s license to use Cookies’ branding.
Before that, Cookies took kickbacks on deals between CRP and third-party vendors on top of the unspecified licensing fee and royalties paid by CRP to use the Cookies logo and other intellectual property, the suit claims.
After Cookies executives meddled in various other deals, CRP claims to have been saddled with “millions of dollars in spoiling vape cartridges, blunts, hemp smokes, 1gram Vaporizers, Gummies, and Dab Liquids.”
That suit, which claims damages in excess of $38 million, names two Cookies companies, Berling and other Cookies C-suite executives.
Berner is not named in this suit.
Second lawsuit details
In the second suit, refiled on March 8, two Cookies investors – who together say they own 10% of the company – claim a similar pattern of behavior that benefits executives at the expense of the company.
Berner “and his cohorts,” including Berling and Cookies executives Ian Habenicht and Lesjai Peronnet Chang “use the popularity of the Cookies brand to engage in pervasive self-dealing without regard to inherent conflicts of interest and to strongarm and bully others into paying them millions of dollars in personal benefits and kickbacks,” the suit alleges.
