Cannabis Magazine Executive Sentenced In Secret ‘Pay-For-Play’ Stock Scheme

LOS ANGELES, CA — The chairman of the company that publishes the long-running cannabis-focused magazine High Times was sentenced Tuesday to eight months of home detention for secretly paying an investment newsletter analyst to promote the company’s stock, according to prosecutors.

Adam Levin, 47, of Marina del Rey, was also sentenced to two years of probation, fined $180,000 and ordered to pay $143,537 in restitution, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Levin pleaded guilty in February 2025 to one federal count of conspiracy to tout securities for undisclosed compensation.

Prosecutors said Levin paid more than $150,000 to arrange favorable coverage of a Hightimes Holding Corp. securities offering in Palm Beach Venture, a nationwide newsletter that offers investment tips.

The promotion helped Hightimes raise at least $6 million from investors. The company raised about $20 million from more than 10 investors in 2020 and 2021, prosecutors wrote in court documents obtained by Patch.

Federal law requires people who are paid by a company to promote its securities to publicly disclose that compensation.

Instead, Levin used a sham marketing agreement and routed the payments through a Canadian bank to a shell company in Canada, according to his plea agreement. He also admitted paying tens of thousands of dollars in entertainment expenses including boat rentals, food and alcohol.

Palm Beach Venture published promotional articles about the Hightimes offering in April and September 2020 while falsely telling readers that the newsletter and its affiliates were not being paid to present the investment opportunity, court records show.

Levin also admitted lying to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission by denying that he knew he had entered into a pay-for-play arrangement.

Three other defendants — newsletter analyst Jonathan William Mikula, associate Christian Fernandez and Beverly Hills company executive Raj Beri — previously pleaded guilty in connection with the scheme. They were sentenced to prison terms ranging from six to 28 months.

The SEC separately brought a civil case against Hightimes that ended in 2023 with the company agreeing to a cease-and-desist order and paying a $558,071 penalty.