Las Vegas house being sold through SEC case against pot business
More than a year after federal regulators accused a man known as Max Bergmann of taking part in a Ponzi scheme, someone vandalized the garage of his Las Vegas house with a stark message.
“MAX YOU’RE DEAD.”
A work crew recently painted over the threat. The home is now changing hands through a case centered on an alleged investment scam by a Las Vegas marijuana business called WeedGenics.
U.S. District Judge John Holcomb this month approved court-appointed receiver Krista Freitag’s sale of the northwest valley property for about $1.1 million to new owners. The one-story house, on Gracemoor Court near the intersection of Buffalo Drive and Lone Mountain Road, spans more than 3,600 square feet.
Rolf Max Hirschmann, who allegedly used the fake name “Max Bergmann” while working as a pitchman for WeedGenics, acquired the house in 2021 for $825,000 through an entity called Autobahn Performance, court and property records show.
More than $700,000 in work was subsequently done on the home, according to a court filing by Freitag. She reported that two bedrooms and a bathroom were apparently combined and used as a fitness area, and other bedrooms were seemingly used as office space and a recording studio.
Freitag, co-founder of E3 Advisors, did not respond to a request for comment. The home’s listing agent, Tania Michaels of Keller Williams Realty The Marketplace, declined to comment, as did Hirschmann’s attorneys with law firm Nixon Peabody.
The Securities and Exchange Commission filed court papers in May 2023 alleging WeedGenics raised nearly $62 million from roughly 350 investors but ran a “Ponzi-like scheme.” According to the SEC, the company lied about having cannabis facilities and used funds to pay other investors or for personal use, including jewelry, cash withdrawals and luxury cars such as Ferraris, Lamborghinis and BMWs.
WeedGenics executive Patrick Earl Williams, a rapper known as “BigRigBaby,” also spent investor funds on his music career, the agency said.
Hirschmann, who was WeedGenics’ investor relations representative, and Williams, who was chairman and president of its corporate entity, allegedly had “no real company, no product, and no business, yet despite this, they promised investors everything and then delivered nothing,” Michele Wein Layne, then-director of the SEC’s Los Angeles regional office, said in a news release last year.
WeedGenics told prospective investors that its cannabis cultivation facility in Las Vegas generated annual revenue of $18 million and that a new facility in California would boost annual revenue to $54 million, according to the SEC.
It also indicated it had the required licenses and permits for its facilities, but “all of this was a sham,” the SEC alleged.
WeedGenics previously listed its mailing address as being in the Hughes Center office park just east of the Strip and claimed that its products could be found at several Las Vegas-area dispensaries. But one of those retailers told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that it never heard of WeedGenics.
Freitag has said in court papers that she’s recovered more than $8 million in cash, 14 vehicles, six real estate properties and various jewelry and artwork.
Hirschmann’s attorneys said in court papers last year that federal law enforcement was investigating the events described in the SEC’s civil complaint against WeedGenics, Hirschmann and Williams.
No criminal charges have been filed.
Contact Eli Segall at esegall@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0342.