Investors who include Curaleaf Holdings Executive Chair Boris Jordan filed a $60 million lawsuit alleging they were induced into funding an Oregon CBD startup based on false and misleading information.
The lawsuit, filed in Multnomah County Circuit Court, lists seven investment funds as plaintiffs against Oregon entrepreneur Nitin Khanna and others, according to the Portland Business Journal.
The investors claim in the suit, according to the report, that they made $74 million in unsecured loans to Khanna’s Sentia Wellness startup based on false claims about the company’s prospects.
Khanna is a former CEO of Oregon-based Cura Partners, which Massachusetts-based Curaleaf acquired in 2020. That deal initially was valued at $948.8 million but was revised downward.
Sentia was a spinoff of Cura Partners, according to the Business Journal, that struggled from the start. Its Social CBD brand was sold to a California lifestyle company for an undisclosed price last year.
Khanna’s attorney, Vivek Kothari, told the Business Journal that the claims in the lawsuit are baseless.
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“Sentia ultimately failed because of changes in the regulatory environment and the impact of COVID on the retail environment,” Kothari said in a statement to the publication.
“These are sophisticated investors who knew the high risks of investing in a new business.”
