Hello and good evening. I am writing to you as a long term investor in CEN-Biotech (ticker FITX), and in full support of the company. I would like to give some historical background and investor perspective. I would sincerely appreciate if you would spend the time to read it, and pass it on to the investigation team.
I initially invested in this company in April 2011 when they announced they would be entering the sports nutrition supplement industry (an interest of mine). Creative Edge Nutrition initially reverse merged into a defunct company (ticker LBGE) in 2011 in order to be able to expedite the process of becoming public and bring products to market. The initial CEO of Creative Edge Nutrition (Paul Thomas) announced a product they were going to formulate called Metabolic Xtreme. It was more of a concept and he was slow in moving it forward, and never actually did.
Creative Edge Nutrition subsequently brought in Bill Chaaban to replace him in April 2012 as the new CEO. Shortly after becoming CEO, Bill Chaaban announced milestones and goals over the next couple years in terms of bringing these sports nutrition products to market. He was starting from scratch. However, not only did he bring Metabolic Xtreme to market, but he quickly brought several other products through research and development and to market, including AminoPlex and HyperInfusion. I still use the AminoPlex nutritional products almost daily, and they are great.
Mr. Chaaban also wanted to get a ticker change to reflect the current business that had nothing to do with the old business, so he had it changed from LBGE to FITX. Not only did he get the nutritional side of the company up and running strongly (which is still ongoing), he announced and began development of the medical marijuana subsidiary (CEN-Biotech) in 3/2013. Given the goals announced for the nutritional side, all of which were followed through on over the next couple years, I knew that Mr. Chaaban had integrity and was goal-driven. So, I knew he would work diligently no differently with the CEN-Biotech subsidiary, which he did from the beginning and has continued to do.
Similarly to how he announced goals and plans for the nutritional side of the company, and followed through on every one of them, he also announced goals and plans for the newly formed subsidiary CEN-Biotech. As investors, we again began to see steady progress from the build out of the facility (following full approvals from the Town of Lakeshore, as well as receiving a Ready to Build letter from Health Canada), industry networking, and other tangible progress, everything continued to appear on track. Bill Chaaban recruited an absolutely amazing board of directors (BOD) and medical team consisting of expert physician-scientists with world-renowned recognition in the medical, scientific, research, and financial industries including a prior senior level executive at Fidelity and JPMorgan (see highlighted links below), as well as John Germinario, who works with the US SEC (securities exchange commission). The magnitude and achievements of this personnel would not be joining just any company if the company was not legitimate.
Everything continued to be on track and correlated accurately with every announcement made. Then, we began to run into delays which were due to Health Canada taking much longer than expected for coming to inspect our facility. These delays were months and months despite the company being ready for inspection. When they finally did come to inspect many months later, the report stated that approval was recommended pending the correction of 2 minor issues (a screen over a vent, and the security camera angle). Again, we began to wait many more months for final approval, even though these minor issues were quickly fixed.
In these months of delay, the Town of Lakeshore began to change their stance. They initially welcomed the company to Lakeshore in a public video http://vimeo.com/83685127
and had received approvals for their facility build-out. However, in more recent months while the delays due to Health Canada were occurring, they also decided to try to change the local bylaws and change the zoning in a way which would inhibit CEN-Biotech from operating. A few nearby residents began to complain about the project with outlandish claims/concerns just as license was coming, despite watching the buildings go up and saying nothing for all of the preceding months. It later came out in a letter by the company to the town councilors that the few neighbors were attempting to extort significant compensation in monetary value and employment in return for their support of the company/building, which the company did not stand for (and rightfully so).
These few neighbors were able to influence their local councilors to attempt to write a new bylaw stating medical cannabis grow-ops need to be zoned industrial, not agricultural (CEN-Bio is agricultural). The mayor also began to flip-flop regarding CEN-Bio, suspected to be politically driven. There have been identical zoning motions passed by other towns that were struck down by the provincial government, saying that grow-ops do not require industrial zoning. The town clearly knew what was being built the whole time, provided building permits, along with the ready to build letter from Health Canada. There was a letter written from these few residents and their attorney to Health Canada as well asking them to delay/avoid license to CEN-Biotech, which added more delay.
Along with the delay from the above issues, we began to see an assault against CEN-Biotech by the media. In particular, Grant Robertson of the Globe and Mail has targeted CEN-Biotech with continuous assault of articles, many of which have not been based on true facts, and twisting of the actual facts. I have watched his articles timed with every time that the stock has a continued uptrend. He will release several articles in a row which causes the stock to drop significantly. I have watched this occur over and over. I honestly feel that he has an agenda against the company, whether it is being funded by trader groups, or competition, or something else. I sincerely hope that he is investigated in this as well, because he is a central piece. Matt Finston and Chris Parry are two bloggers who have also been relentlessly attacking CEN-Biotech during all of the delays they have suffered, driving share price further down. In fact, Grant Roberston has quoted and discussed Matt Finston several times in his articles, and I wouldn't be surprised if these individuals were all working together somehow. I truly hope this investigation is fair and they are all investigated. Matt Finston has also talked about shorting FITX on his Twitter and there are shareholders who have all of these screenshots saved.
There is documentation of Libby Davies meeting with the Tilray lobbyists, and later on Libby was quoted in one of Grant Robertson's bash articles on CEN-Biotech, also attacking the company. I hope that paper and money trails are evaluated with these individuals. The prior CEO of Tweed was also bashing FITX on his Twitter. I feel there is an orchestrated attach against the company, likely from competitors who feel threatened by CEN-Biotech since they would be the largest grower upon licensure, and possibly from trading groups who could be shorting the stock. This is just speculation, but I wouldn't at all be surprised as I have watched everything closely unfold since the beginning. These misleading articles, blogs, and events have influenced Health Canada negatively, which led to license denial for CEN-Biotech.
Please read through this page on the CEN-Biotech website, which addresses many of these issues and investor concerns:
http://www.cenbiotechinc.com/PlatformApps/CEN/c1/faq.html
Never once did I feel misled in anyway by any announcements or public releases. There are over 2100 investors on a dedicated CEN-Biotech investor page on the internet alone who feel the same way, which is why we have stuck it out continuously. We have lost significant value in our investments. This is not because of Bill Chaaban, any statements he has made, or any announcements by the company. These losses are purely due to the events, agendas, and manipulation discussed above, which have erroneously influenced Health Canada. CEN-Biotech has been painted in a very unfair light in the media. As one of many investors, I'm sick of watching it happen with no repercussions against these individuals (such as Grant Robertson, Mayor Tom Bain and councillors, local neighbors in Lakeshore, Matt Finston, and Chris Parry). The only investigation that should be ongoing in my opinion is against Grant Robertson, these aforementioned individuals, the Town of Lakeshore, and Health Canada, rather than the company itself. I sincerely hope that your team will quickly find this to be the case.
For those with disabling neurologic diseases (I changed this line slightly for privacy reasons), it is an absolute shame how much of a delay the company has sustained in beginning their research and development of medical cannabis strains and medications, all due to the influence from misleading articles and manipulative behaviors above, as well as unjust retroactive changes in bylaws that the town of Lakeshore has been attempting to pass. I continued to stay invested in CEN-Biotech because I was excited (and still am) with their plans for moving the science of medical cannabis forward, along with the outstanding medical professionals they had collected on their Board of Directors who would be involved in the research and company. It is honestly quite sad for the patients who need better quality medications, which CEN-Biotech has been waiting to begin production of, only to continue being delayed for unjust reasons as discussed above.
I implore you to please investigate fairly, and please investigate the entities mentioned above who have played the biggest role in loss of shareholder value. I have watched this company unfold from the beginning. I have watched Bill Chaaban attain the company's stated goals until the above issues halted the company's progress. I only hope that these issues will be brought to light and the company is cleared and able to continue with their previously stated goals for the future.
Sincerely,
XXX
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Michael Peterman Is there a cliff notes version lol.
Yesterday at 12:51pm · Like · 1
