NHL legend suing Alberta cannabis company after losing $500,000
National Hockey League legend Mark Messier is suing Alberta-based Destiny Bioscience after reportedly losing $500,000, according to TSN's Rick Westhead.
The lawsuit notes the company's CEO, Ed Moroz, made a personal guarantee to Messier that he would not lose money. In May, 2019, Messier signed on as a “goodwill” ambassador for the company to help “build business relationships and potential partners,” as well as leverage his celebrity.
Messier, a 15-time All-Star, won six Stanley Cups over the course of his career and was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2007. The lawsuit states that he is one of the greatest hockey players of all time and among “the most famous celebrities in New York.”
Messier reports he bought 400,000 shares of the company for $1.25 apiece after receiving a guarantee he wouldn't lose money.
A year later, however, the company was $42 million in debt and placed in receivership. The company's cultivation facilities in Nisku and Leduc, Alta., are up for sale.
In Nisku, the company has two buildings, totalling 284,065 square feet, on 25 acres of land. The Genetics Building is 75 per cent complete, while the Organics Building is built-out, featuring a 90,000 square foot shop and a warehouse with furnished office space.
The Leduc property is a micro cultivation and lab site, designed for cultivation and extraction, and also features a genomics and tissue propagation lab. It's 90 per cent complete.
Several Canadian producers have scaled back or paused operations this year.