Principal Connected To East Austin Jumpolin Saga Runs Afoul Of Federal Securities Regulators

AUSTIN, TX — Christopher French—brother of one of the principal actors behind the 2015 Jumpolin saga garnering international headlines after his company bulldozed a piñata with scant warning to its owners—has been ordered by federal regulators to cease and desist writing freelanced puff pieces about other companies.

In an April 10 filing, Securities and Exchange Commission officials accuse French of violating the anti-fraud and anti-touting provisions of federal securities laws by commissioning freelancers to write positive stories about certain companies for use by financial investments websites without disclosing they were paid promotions. French has been ordered to stop doing that, and ordered to pay nearly $40,000 to the U.S. Treasury as a result.

The writings occurred between August and November 2012, but it was only recently that French and the SEC came to agreeable terms to have the practice stopped, according to the filing. French is brother to Jordan French, who was at the center a controversial demolition of a popular East Austin neighborhood business that sparked an outcry.

"French also caused violations of the federal securities laws by paying freelance writers to write additional articles that he sold to a stock promotion firm when French knew or was reckless in not knowing the stock promotion firm would publish the articles without disclosure of compensation," SEC officials wrote.

French's brother was a principal of F&F Ventures, owners of East Austin property on which the Jumpolin piñata was a longtime neighborhood fixture. The company and his business partners had recently bought the property from the previous owner, and it soon became clear they had hoped to capitalize on the then-upcoming SXSW-timed party on the property but were prevented from opening up their newly acquired real estate due to the presence of Jumpolin, a business once located at 1401 E. Cesar Chavez that sold piñatas and other party supplies and stood in the way of their plans.

One day, the owners of Jumpolin, Sergio and Monica Lejarazu, arrived to work to find the business they had built up bulldozed to the ground, with its contents still intact. A lawsuit followed and a settlement was ultimately reached with the former shop's owners.

In subsequent reporting on the saga, other business interests of French and his brother, Jordan, emerged. One of those was a company that wrote PR-style missives for companies online. The SEC filing sheds light on a related venture, one predating the Jumpolin debacle.

According to the SEC, Christopher, a 32-year-old graduate of the University of New Hampsire, where he earned an MBA and bachelor's degree in business, "...published numerous articles on investment websites under the pseudonyms "Cris Frangold" and "Mel Daris" for a stock promotion firm, Lidingo Holdings LLC. He also paid articles that he later sold to Lidingo for it to publish under its own pseudonyms, the SEC outlined in its cease-and-desist order.

Formed in 2011, Lidingo was dissolved three years later. Before its dissolution, it was owned and operated by Kamilla Bjorlin, and provided promotional services to issuers that included publication of more than 400 articles describing securities on investment website. The SEC has charged Lidingo and Bjorlin "...for their roles in the misconduct described in this order, and for other misconduct unrelated to French," SEC officials wrote.

As it relates to French, he paid freelance writers to product at least seven articles he then published on the investment website SeekingAlpha.com under the aforementioned pseudonyms. "The articles French published positively described the securities of Advanced Medical Isotope Corporation, ImmunoCellular Therapeutics, Ltd., NeoStem, Inc. (now doing business as Caladrius Biosciences, Inc.), and OncoSec Medical Incorporated, four issuers that were clients of Lidingo or another stock promotion firm affiliated with Lidingo. Lidingo paid French for these articles," SEC officials wrote in their order.

French would run afoul of the SEC for this activity because he didn't disclose the articles were paid-for promotions or the amount of compensation he received, according to the filing. What's more, in the articles published on Seeking Alpha's website, French misrepresented that was not receiving compensation, according to regulators.

"French falsely stated that he was not receiving compensation because, at the time, Seeking Alpha had a policy that expressly prohibited compensated articles," SEC officials wrote. "French’s misstatements regarding his compensation were material," officials continued, noting the published articles were "bullish descriptions of publicly traded stocks."

According to details in the SEC filing, French was a prolific publisher: "French also paid freelance writers to write an additional nine articles that he sold to Lidingo. The articles positively described the securities of Advanced Medical Isotope Corporation, Galena Biopharma, Inc., NeoStem, Inc. (now doing business as Caladrius Biosciences, Inc.), OncoSec Medical Incorporated, and Stevia First Corporation (now doing business as Vitality Biopharma, Inc.), five issuers that were clients of Lidingo or another stock promotion firm affiliated with Lidingo. Lidingo then published the articles under its own pseudonyms without disclosing that these articles were paid-for promotions or the amount of the compensation received. Lidingo paid French for these articles," regulators wrote in their order.

Lidingo paid French at least $16,000 for the articles, according to the SEC.

"French knew or was reckless in not knowing that Lidingo would not disclose the compensation it received for publishing the articles he provided. He knew that Lidingo was in the business of getting articles published on Seeking Alpha and other investment websites because during the period he caused the nine articles to be written and provided them to Lidingo," SEC officials wrote. "Lidingo was paying him to publish articles relating to many of the same issuers on Seeking Alpha. He also knew that Lidingo wanted its writers not to disclose compensation when they published articles."

On June 22, 2012, Seeking Alpha changed its policy, announcing it would no longer publish articles a writer had been paid for preparing, SEC officials noted.

As a result of the outlined actions, French violated certain SEC provisions prohibiting fraudulent conduct in the offer or sales of securities and in connection with the purchase or sale of securities, regulators outlined. Violations also occurred that prohibit people from publishing, giving publicity or circulating any communication describing a security in exchange for direct or indirect consideration from an issuer without disclosure.

As a result of the violations, French was ordered to repay the government to the tune of nearly $40,000 in installments of $2,850, two of which were previously scheduled and another owed on April 15. The last payment is due in February 2018, SEC officials wrote.

All told, French was ordered to pay a "disgorgement" of $16,100, disgorgement of $16,100, prejudgment interest of $2,105, and a civil money penalty in the amount of $20,000 in 13 installments, according to the filing.

Patch spoke with both French brothers over the telephone about the SEC order, largely on background after each registered surprise the filing was made public. "I don't really feel like I have to make any statement," French said, suggesting the publication efforts were made at the direction of other business partners with whom he's now distanced himself. He later agreed to provide Patch with an emailed statement reacting to the SEC filing, but no such statement had been received as of late Monday evening.

To see the full SEC order, click here.

For his part, Jordan French (who was at the center of the Jumpolin mess) was touted as the keynote speaker during last month's PR Summit Austin event titled "PR Growth-Hacking—Becoming A Success Story Even Before You're A Success" at the Omni Austin Hotel downtown. Billing himself as founder and president of Notability Partners, he was joined by other keynote speakers that included Todd Defren, founder of Shift Communications, and Louis Gray of Alphabet Inc.’s Google.

"In his keynote address, French will bring to bear lessons learned from his years of experience on the front lines of the ever-evolving frontier of digital marketing, public relations, influencer marketing and branding, providing invaluable insights into how PR entrepreneurs can fuel their growth," organizers wrote.

In the notice, Jordan French was billed as a Fast 50 and Inc. 500-ranked serial entrepreneur and journalist based in New York. He identified himself as the founding Chief Marketing Officer at BeeHex, Inc., the 3D food printing pioneer with origins from NASA. French also was described as having co-founded BNB Shield, known as the “AirBnB police” and founded O’Dwyer’s-ranked Notability Partners.

Moreover, he was billed as a director and the founding CEO/COO who built the “Olivia Pope of the Internet,” Status Labs, and is on the leadership team at FOWNDERS, the social-impact startup accelerator based in Newark, New Jersey.

"French brings a unique perspective to the conference for public relations professionals, with his work in engineering, philanthropy and law," the release stated. "In engineering, he worked as a payload engineer for NASA’s Mars Gravity Biosatellite Program with other experience ranging from micro-electro-mechanical devices, Free Electron Laser beam delivery systems and medical intake systems at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. In philanthropy, he was the founding PR director for fitRaise, the peer-to-peer fundraising platform for charities. In law, he represented the People of the United States as an attorney-adviser at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Office of Enforcement in Washington, D.C., and worked at a major patent-litigation firm in Houston, Texas."

As a journalist, he was identified as a frequent contributor to The Huffington Post, CIO, TechCrunch, and Tech.co, Thrive magazine, Influencive and Business.com.

In a previous interview with Patch, Jordan French related efforts to distance themselves from business partners who were at the center of the Jumpolin demolition that sparked so much attention two years ago. Jordan French told Patch that he was suing members of Status Labs (yet anther related company) after they tried removing him from its ranks, naming Darius Fisher and Jesse Boskoff in his lawsuit in seeking damages and attorneys fees.

In the wake of a PR nightmare that emerged in the wake of the Jumpolin demolition, the company announced they had asked Jordan French to resign. Jordan French claims Fisher and Boskoff have since raised their annual salaries from $170,000 to $400,000 with 15 percent bonuses without providing him his share, he told Patch in a recent interview at a coffee shop.

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Editor's note: This story was corrected to reflect that Christopher Jordan, not Jordan, graduated from the University of New Hampshire. Patch regrets the error.