SANTA
ANA, Calif., March 6, 2024 – PRESS RELEASE – Blüm HoldingsInc., a cannabis company with operations throughout California, announced that
its subsidiary, Unrivaled Brands Inc., filed a civil complaint against Bernard
Steimann, Daniel Troup and Troup Construction for civil theft, conversion, and
declaratory relief arising from the alleged theft of Blüm’s signage at
approximately 5:30 a.m. Jan. 18 from the Blüm Santa Ana store. A police report,
a copy of which was attached to the complaint, was filed on Jan. 31 for
“grand theft from building $950 or more.”
The
complaint alleges that Steimann was upset that Blüm Santa Ana was recently
rebranded to “Blüm” from “People’s,” a brand in which Steimann holds an
interest, and conspired with Daniel Troup to steal commercial signs from the
Blüm Santa Ana cannabis dispensary.
The
complaint details Unrivaled’s reputational concerns about continuing to be
associated with People’s California LLC and its founders reading in part,
“Unrivaled management has received inquiries questioning its association with
the People’s brand. Unrivaled is aware that People’s California released a
social media video depicting People’s California’s founder and majority owner,
Bernard Steimann, destroying a field of cannabis plants using a
People’s-branded off-road truck. The actions depicted in the video were
antithetical to Unrivaled’s outlook toward cannabis, and Unrivaled is informed
and believed that the video was not well received in the cannabis community.
While the video may have been looked down upon by some in the cannabis
community, Unrivaled also became aware of public court filings alleging that
Mr. Steimann had engaged in conduct that would be considered despicable in any
community. Unrivaled determined that it cannot be associated with people who
engage in, or are accused of engaging in, such conduct.”
Unrivaled
CEO Sabas Carrillo said, “Management had made the business decision to rebrand
the retail location to ‘Blüm’ from ‘People’s’ in order to align the company
with a brand and image that represents our culture and values; from the way we
conduct ourselves in business to the standards to which we hold ourselves in
our personal affairs. We as an industry, as a company, as a team, and as
individuals aspire to be better, and Blüm has always stood for that in the
cannabis industry. We feel it is important to distance ourselves from the
People’s brand at this time.”
On Feb.
28, Blüm Santa Ana obtained a temporary restraining order against New Patriot
Holdings Inc., to stop New Patriot from interfering with Blüm Santa Ana’s
parking. New Patriot is an affiliate entity of People’s California originally
incorporated by Steimann and owned at least in part by Jay Yadon. Deron Colby
of Janus Capital Law Group appeared on behalf of New Patriot in that matter. In
other matters, Colby is counsel to Medalist Diversified REIT Inc.
