Tech Firm Says CFO Stole $2M to Start Pot Biz

ATLANTA (CN) - An Alpharetta, Ga., technology company claims in court that its former chief financial officer stole nearly $2 million in order to fund a criminal conspiracy to grow and distribute marijuana.

Nanoventions Holdings, which filed its lawsuit against onetime CFO Steve Daniels in the Forsyth County Superior Court on April 23, designs and manufacturers optical and non-optical "microstructure" technology used to prevent the counterfeiting of everything from driver's licenses to pharmaceuticals.

According to the complaint, Daniels was hired to be Nanoventions CFO in 2007, and he held that position until October, 2014, when he was fired for the theft of funds.

The company says an investigation conducted after the $2 million was discovered to be missing found the beginning in July 2011, and perhaps earlier, Daniels forged checks and converted them to his use.

"Daniels would then later these transactions and delete data in Plaintiff's accounting systems prior to disclosing, submitting, or revealing company accounting information to other employees of the Plaintiff," the complaint says.

Nanoventions says in 2014, Daniels and nine other individuals, his co-defendants in the lawsuit, established an entity called BIW Enterprises, "funded in large part by money stolen from Plaintiff," and entered into a "Sham 'loan'" with a business called Sun Tinting, to further a marijuana growing and distribution operation based in California.

The plaintiff company says it discovered the banking irregularities allegedly carried out by Daniels on October 7, 2014, and immediately contact its bank and the Roswell [Georgia] Police Department and filed a forgery report.

The case eventually wound up in the hands of the Forsyth County Sheriff's Department, which arrested and charged Daniels with the theft of $1.9 million, forgery, intent to distribute three different narcotics and also a counterfeit narcotic.

The former CFO's bail was set at $2.2 million, and he remains in custody, the complaint says.

Nanoventions seeks compensatory, treble and punitive damages on multiple claims of Georgia RICO violations, fraud, conversion, and breach of fiduciary duty.

The company is represented by Stuart Mones in Atlanta. Representatives for Daniels could not immediately be reached for comment.

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