Additional Information for Heart Leaf Farms, LLC

The following describes a pending government action that has been formally brought by a government agency but has not yet been resolved. We are providing a summary of the governments allegations, which have not yet been proven.

On October 21, 2021, in the District Court, City and County Of Denver, Colorado the People of The State Of Colorado issued a Colorado State Grand Jury Indictment against Kyle Lee Whitaker and Johnny Joseph Caron for two counts of securities fraud. 

The indictment alleges that beginning in or about September of 2018, Kyle Lee Whitaker (“Whitaker”) and Johnny Joseph Caron (“Caron”) orchestrated an offering of securities by and through Heart Leaf Farms, LLC (“HLF”) and related entities. Whitaker and Caron solicited SK (“SK”) and his wife SJK (“SJK”) to invest in HLF, a start-up hemp farming operation. SK was led to believe that profits would be earned by the growing and selling of hemp and cannabis. Beginning in or about September of 2018 and through October of 2018, Whitaker and Caron received wire transfers in the total amount of three hundred thousand dollars ($300,000) from SK and SJK for the sole purpose of funding HLF. The investments offered by Whitaker and Caron were premised upon the representation that the funds would be used for the planting, cultivation, and harvesting of hemp and cannabis.

Whitaker and Caron continued the acts, practices, and course of business designed to defraud investors in and between September of 2018, and through December 2019. Whitaker and Caron continued to accept, use and hold investor funds while failing to make the necessary disclosures. Whitaker and Caron used investor funds to pay personal expenses and continued the material misstatements and omissions to SK and SJK after their initial investment, preventing SK and SJK from making complaints or notifying law enforcement. These resulting business practices operated as a fraud or deceit upon investors SK and SJK in the Heart Leaf Farms, LLC holding.

The indictment lists the following charges:

1. Count One - Securities Fraud - About and between September 1, 2018 and February 1, 2020, in and triable in the State of Colorado, KYLE LEE WHITAKER and JOHNNY JOSEPH CARON, in connection with the offer or sale of any security to SK and SJK directly or indirectly, unlawfully, feloniously, and willfully made an untrue statement of a material fact or omitted to state a material fact necessary in order to make the statements made, in the light of the circumstances under which they were made, not misleading, contrary to the form of the statutes in such case made and provided, C.R.S. §§ 11-51-501(1)(b) and 11-51-603(1) (Securities Fraud – Class 3 Felony), against the peace and dignity of the People of the State of Colorado, and with more information described in the indictment.

2. Count Two - Securities Fraud, Course of Business - On or about and between September 1, 2018 and February 1, 2020, in and triable in the State of Colorado, KYLE LEE WHITAKER and JOHNNY JOSEPH CARON, in connection with the offer or sale of any security to investors in Heart Leaf Farms, LLC, directly or indirectly, unlawfully, feloniously, and knowingly engaged in any course of business which operated or would operate as a fraud or deceit upon any person, contrary to the form of the statutes in such case made and provided, C.R.S. §§ 11-51-501(1)(c) and 11-51-603(1), and against the peace and dignity of the People of the State of Colorado, with more information described in the indictment.

For more information, please contact the Colorado State Attorney General’s Office at 720-508-6000 or  https://coag.gov.