Debra BorchardtApril 8, 2020
Former Doyen Elements CEO Geoff Thompson has agreed to a settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission for an amount over half a million. The settlement was related to stock fraud associated with Accelera Innovations and Synergistic Holdings.
Thompson has agreed to a payment of $350,000, representing profits gained as a result of the conduct alleged in the Complaint, along with prejudgment interest in the amount of $ 74,849.97, for a total of $424,849.97. In addition to that, Thompson has agreed to pay a civil penalty in the amount of $100,000 in the form of four payments of $25,000 each.
He is also barred from serving as an officer of a public company for five years and from participating in an offering of penny stock, including engaging in activities with a broker, dealer, or issuer for purposes of issuing, trading, or inducing or attempting to induce the purchase or sale of any penny stock.
Original Complaint
In September of 2017, the SEC alleged that Thompson, acting through a company called Accelera Innovations Inc. and Synergistic Holdings LLC, sold approximately $1.7 million worth of Accelera stock to investors and that the sale was not registered or subject to an exemption from registration. At the same time that the SEC filed the complaint about Thompson and Accelera, Thompson and Doyen Elements were selling shares online.
Beginning in 2011, Thompson, through the limited liability company which he co-owned with his wife, GNNT, LP, owned and controlled Synergistic Group, LLC. Synergistic was a commodity pool operator, commodity trading advisor, and an investment adviser that was registered with the State of Illinois. Thompson was the Managing Member and Chief Compliance Officer of Synergistic Group, LLC. Through GNNT, LP, Thompson owned at least 75% of Synergistic Group, LLC.
The Commission’s complaint in that matter alleged that from approximately January 2012 through September 2014, Thompson, acting through Synergistic Holdings, LLC and Accelera Innovations, Inc., sold at least 849,886 shares of Accelera common stock to 69 investors for a total of $1,700,301. The complaint further alleged that there was no registration statement in effect for the sales of the shares and that the sales were not exempt from the registration requirements. The complaint further alleged that $1.3 million of the $1.7 million in proceeds from the sale of Accelera common stock was deposited into an account controlled by Synergistic Group.
Doyen Elements
Shareholders have been confused over the Doyen situation. They invested money into Doyen Elements and when their money disappeared, they learned there were two Doyens. At the time, Thompson said the confusion stemmed from the fact that there was Doyen International (Canada) and Doyen Elements (U.S.). Thompson said the Doyen Elements company is the group that is ignoring shareholders and has renamed itself Reach Genetics. He said that this is the company these shareholders really invested in, not Doyen International.
He said that Doyen International sued Doyen Elements accusing the group of hijacking the Reg. A fundraising and requesting that they stop using the Doyen name. In March 2019, Doyen International announced it was rebranding and renaming itself to Covalent Collective. In addition, the company announced Bill Gregorak would be the Chief Executive Officer. Prior to being named CEO, Mr. Gregorak served as Chief Financial Officer of Covalent Collective since February 2018. Mr. Gregorak takes over as CEO from Geoffrey Thompson, a co-founder of Covalent Collective, who will continue as leader of the merger and acquisitions because Thompson was in the process of agreeing with the SEC that he would not be a director of a company.
Covalent Collective
In June 2019, the SEC it filed a subpoena enforcement action in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois against Covalent Collective, Inc. f/k/a Doyen Elements International, Inc. f/k/a Advantameds Solutions, Inc. (“Doyen”) for failure to produce documents in an investigation.
The SEC’s application alleges that Doyen, through its founder, Geoffrey Thompson, may have violated the registration provisions of the securities laws by engaging in an unregistered offering of securities, and may also have made misleading representations to investors and potential investors about the operations, acquisitions, and projected stock price of Doyen and related entities.
As part of its investigation, the staff in the SEC’s Chicago Regional office served Doyen with a document subpoena on October 24, 2018. The SEC’s application alleges that Doyen repeatedly refused to produce any documents in response to the subpoena, notwithstanding multiple efforts by the SEC to secure its compliance. The company finally gave the SEC the documents in July 2019.
“When we submitted our document production on July 23, 2019, we were confident that we had provided everything necessary to comply with the SEC’s subpoena,” commented Mr. Bill Gregorak, CEO of Covalent Collective. “It is gratifying to have received confirmation from the SEC and we are happy to be able to put this issue behind us and move forward with our corporate strategy of acquiring assets in our geographic priorities.” The only thing that Covalent had put behind it was giving the documents requested with the investigation, not that the investigation was ended.
Hempcentric/Hempmetrix
One Covalent shareholder said that Thompson told him he had a new company called HempMetrix and that Covalent shareholders would receive pro rata shares and that HempMetrix was a Delaware C Corp. There is no record online of such a company.
However, there is a company called Hempcentrics. Thompson has a podcast dated October 2019 about it in which he describes the company. There is little additional information on this company. There is a Shopify website for the products with the URL Green Life Balance. The products are available for sale, but there is no information where the CBD is sourced or any information about the company.
The podcast mentions that the company has brought in its own scientists, but there is no information as to who these people are. Thompson also teases a process that the company has created having something to do with a crystallization process in which the company is applying for patents. He calls it a biotech firm.
He says the company has eight people on its team, but again there is no website. He also says he is prepping the company to go public, but his settlement specifically states he can have nothing to do with a penny stock company. He describes himself only as a consultant to the company.
Staff
