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by Mike Caswell

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has won five-year bans on Kirill Chumenko and Frank Barone, two men who were part of a fraud with Vancouver's Canafarma Hemp Products Corp. in 2019. The SEC claimed that the men were part of a group that misled investors in Canafarma, which touted a hemp chewing gum product called "Yooforic." The group touted $25-million in revenue, but in reality Canafarma did not produce any products. (All figures are in U.S. dollars.)

The bans for Mr. Chumenko and Mr. Barone are contained in two consent judgments filed on Thursday, April 10, in federal court in New York. The judge has barred both men from serving as an officer or director and has banned them from penny stocks, with all the sanctions applying for a five-year period. The judge has also restrained the men from future violations.

For Mr. Chumenko and Mr. Barone, the bans are just part of their penalty for the scheme. They previously pleaded guilty in a related criminal case. The judge in that matter ordered Mr. Barone to pay $4.7-million in restitution, and imposed a $150,000 forfeiture order on Mr. Chumenko. The judge also ordered each man to serve three years of supervised release. The judge did not impose any jail term after prosecutors said that the men provided "substantial assistance in the investigation and prosecution of others."

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