The chairman of Hightimes Holding Corp., the company that publishes High Times magazine, was sentenced Tuesday to home detention and ordered to pay about $324,000 in fines and restitution for his role in a scheme to pay an analyst for an investment newsletter that touted the firm’s stock and helped it raise at least $6 million.
Adam Levin, 47, of Marina del Rey, pleaded guilty in February 2025 in downtown Los Angeles to one federal count of conspiracy to tout securities for undisclosed compensation.
U.S. District Judge Stanley Blumenfeld Jr. sentenced Levin to two years probation with a condition of eight months of home detention, fined him $180,000, and ordered him to pay $143,537 in restitution, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Levin was the fourth defendant to be charged in the scheme in which companies paid the analyst at Palm Beach Venture, an investment newsletter with subscribers nationwide. That analyst, Jonathan William Mikula, along with his associate, Christian Fernandez, who acted as a money launderer for the scheme, and Raj Beri, the CEO of a Beverly Hills company who brokered deals for undisclosed payments by other issuers, each received a portion of the payments, prosecutors said.
Mikula, Fernandez and Beri each pleaded guilty to federal charges in 2024 and were sentenced last year to prison terms ranging from six to 28 months.
The payments made by executives such as Levin were in exchange for Palm Beach Venture publishing promotional pieces for securities offerings, according to court documents. Federal law requires full and public disclosure from anyone who has received payment — directly or indirectly — from an issuer for publishing, publicizing or circulating any advertisement or communication that describes the issuer’s security offered for sale.
To conceal the scheme, Levin entered into a sham “marketing agreement” and routed the more than $150,000 in payments through a Canadian bank to a shell company in Canada, according to his plea agreement filed in Los Angeles federal court.
Mikula then caused Palm Beach Venture to promote Hightimes’ securities offering on April 6 and Sept. 23 in 2020 in articles that falsely stated, “Neither the Palm Beach Research Group nor its affiliates receive compensation for bringing this deal to you,” the plea agreement states.
Levin also admitted that he lied to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission when he denied knowing that he entered into a “pay-for-play arrangement,” court papers show.