Jackson Jambalaya

What is it about medical marijuana that brings scam artists out of the woodwork.  Mockingscam, Corey Ferraez, and Thomas Moore, not to be confused with St. Thomas Moore.  Moore bilked investors out of millions of dollars for a medical marijuana operation while using the money to live high on the hog.  The Securities and Exchange Commission announced:

On September 30, 2026, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged Thomas J. Moore, III, a resident of D’Iberville, Mississippi, with misappropriating approximately $1.94 million from approximately 20 individuals in connection with a medical marijuana business Moore primarily owned and controlled.

According to the SEC’s complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi, between at least December 2021 and August 2024, Moore raised approximately $4.94 million from investors to whom he offered and sold equity interests in Mississippi Green Oil, LLC, a Prentiss, Mississippi-based medical marijuana company that he established in or around December 2020, and represented to investors that he would use their money to develop Mississippi Green Oil’s business.  As alleged, Moore spent approximately $1.94 million of investor funds on personal expenses unrelated to the business of Mississippi Green Oil including jewelry and travel.  Moreover, the complaint alleges that Moore also told investors that they would receive short-term profit distributions commensurate with their equity interests but Moore failed to pay investors any distributions.  The complaint further alleges that Moore failed to disclose to prospective investors and investors the existence of various related lawsuits filed by other Mississippi Green Oil investors alleging, among other things, failure to return their principal and pay promised distributions.

The SEC’s complaint charges Moore with violating Section 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5 thereunder.  The SEC seeks a permanent injunction, a conduct-based injunction, disgorgement with prejudgment interest, and a civil penalty against Moore.  

The investigation was conducted by Cecilia Danger and supervised by Jessica M. Weissman, Fernando Torres, and Stephanie N. Moot, all of the SEC’s Miami Regional Office.  The litigation will be led by Michael Mikulic under the supervision of Russell Koonin. 

 

Moore founded Mississippi Green in Prentiss in December 2020.  He touted the company as a cultivator and processor of medical marijuana.  Once created, Moore started soliciting investments while stylin' and profilin'.  The lawsuit provides more information on his hijinks: 

4. Defendant also attracted and retained investors by promising short-term distributions that he said would begin as soon as thirty days and no later than nine months after they invested in Mississippi Green. He told investors that he and his company would make these distributions on a quarterly schedule. However, Mississippi Green did not generate sufficient revenue and struggled with licensing, equipment, and cultivation delays. Despite these setbacks, Defendant continued assuring investors that distributions were imminent, even as none were ever made.

5. Compounding the deception, Defendant failed to disclose that other investors had already sued him for failing to pay them as promised. By the time Defendant solicited many later investors, at least one lawsuit had been pending for several months. Defendant nonetheless continued raising money and, on at least one occasion, falsely told an investor that he had not been served with any lawsuit.

To persuade some investors to invest, he disseminated slide decks that detailed Mississippi Green’s business plan and contained financial information and projected revenues. One of the slide decks projected first-year revenue as high as approximately $64 million, while another one projected between approximately $40 and $60 million.

17. After an individual decided to invest, Defendant and the investor executed a “Letter of Agreement” in which the investor agreed to pay a certain sum in exchange for a percentage equity interest in Mississippi Green. Typically, an investor paid $300,000 for a 1% equity interest.

In fact, Defendant began misappropriating investor money right away in December 2021 and continued doing so until at least August 2024. Among other things, Defendant spent approximately $189,000 on travel and lodging, $180,000 in grocery and department store purchases, $145,000 on fast food and restaurants, $100,500 on clothing and jewelry, $20,500 in private school payments, $698,000 in cash withdrawals, and $180,000 in transfers to family members. Defendant failed to disclose his misappropriation of money to investors when he solicited them throughout the Relevant Period.

26. Defendant told various investors and their relatives in text messages, over the phone, and in person, that they could expect a quarterly distribution by a certain date upon investing. Fueled by these material promises of short-term distributions, some investors took out lines of credit on their homes to invest in Mississippi Green.

These included medical marijuana licensing delays throughout 2022 and 2023, as well as equipment, electricity, and cultivation problems in 2023 and 2024. Indeed, it was not until July 2022, that, on behalf of Mississippi Green, Defendant applied for a medical marijuana cultivation license with the Mississippi State Department of Health. The company would not receive its cultivation license from Mississippi until June 2023. Further, Mississippi Green did not actually begin to plant the marijuana plants until October 2023, which produced a substandard crop that was sold at a deep discount. Mississippi Green planted a second round of crops in February 2024.

For example, on May 6, 2022, after receiving $100,000 of investor money, Defendant spent over $21,000 within a week on restaurants,hotels, a vacation package, and other entertainment.

38. Several times, investor deposits into one of the Moore-controlled accounts coincided with Defendant overdrawing or nearly overdrawing the same account, prompting him to raise more money from investors, which would then only jumpstart the next cycle of misappropriation. In June 2022, Defendant overdrew a bank account into which he had directed $1.2 million in investor deposits. Of that amount, he misappropriated approximately $438,000, which included, among other things, approximately $241,000 in cash withdrawals and over $38,000 in transfers to family members. Similarly, after raising $200,000 in March 2023, Defendant spent over $59,000 that same month on cash withdrawals, travel (hotel and airfare), jewelry, restaurants, florist purchases, and entertainment.

The SEC asked the Court to disgorge Moore of all ill-gotten gains and proceeds. The complaint charges Moore with  violations of several statutes involving the fraudulent sale of securities.  

The case is assigned to District Judge Louis Guirola, Jr and Magistrate Bradley Rath.