CLEVELAND — A federal lawsuit filed against a troubled hemp company in Cleveland has grown to include additional defendants, including a Florida television personality and natural medicine practitioner. Former employees of North Coast Natural Solutions allege the company’s CEO, Tierney ‘Ty’ Williams, and his alleged business partner, Dr. Jenny Wilkins, engaged in fraud and conspiracy by falsely claiming to have the backing of private investors in order to entice prospective employees, most of whom still have yet to be paid.
Sean Sobel and Claire Wade-Kilts, the attorneys representing five former North Coast employees, filed an amended complaint in the federal lawsuit Monday evening. The complaint adds four more parties to the list of defendants: Jenny Wilkins, her husband William Wilkins and their two companies Dr. Jenny Enterprises LLC and vital Life Institute, which does business as AgeVital Pharmacy. Ty Williams and his companies, Level 5 Consulting and North Coast Natural Solutions, were already listed as defendants.
The lawsuit alleges the defendants violated state and federal labor laws, minimum wage laws and breach of contract. The lawsuit intends to seek class action status.
“Our clients walked away from jobs to take this job and now have gone a month, a month-and-a-half without any paycheck,” Wade-Kilts said. “People are losing their cars, their houses, one client had to surrender her pets. This is impacting everyone.”
Dr. Wilkins is a “naturopathic doctor and clinical research associate” that operates a business in Florida, AgeVital Pharmacies, that specialize in natural treatments and holistic medicine, according to a biography on her social media platforms. Neither Wilkins nor her companies responded to requests for comment on the lawsuit. Florida is not one of the 22 states that have licensing or registration requirements for naturopathic doctors. In those 22 states, naturopthic doctors are required to have graduated from an accredited four year residental naturopathic medical program, in addition to passing a board examination.
Sobel and Wade-Kilts said the decision to add Dr. Wilkins, her husband and their companies to the lawsuit came after a September 2018 Facebook post made clear her apparent involvement in Williams’ hemp venture.
“Thank you Ohio for approving my industrial Cannabis project and Dr. Jenny wellness center in Cleveland’s Glenville (neighborhood),” the September 18, 2018 post reads. “What a great turn out at our ribbon cutting this past week. Stay tuned for more details! Our 400,000 sq ft. manufacturing and processing facility will be making history and setting the standards in the cannabis space.”
The post also makes reference to Williams and two prominent black pastors who backed the project, Rev. Caviness and Rev. Phillips. Several photos were also attached to the post.
“She was one of the public faces of this venture, of this effort to build this hemp facility in Glenville,” Sobel said. “We believe she shares just as much, if not more culpability as Mr. Williams as she was broadcasting this was her branded venture. She broadcasted to her Facebook followers and the general public that the Glenville facility is going to be a Dr. Jenny wellness center. That gives us a pretty big clue that she was heavily involved in this venture.”
Dr. Wilkins is also listed as a business partner on the business-related documents that Williams provided to the Cuyahoga Land Bank ahead of purchasing the Kirby Avenue property in August 2018. Land bank officials said staff had Williams provide them with the business plan or prospectus and, later in the process, Williams provided to the land bank two letters of endorsement that were penned by prominent local officials.
“There are many things that should have sounded alarm bells -- from the county’s perspective --during this land bank process and from city officials that acted as cheerleaders for this project,” Sobel said. “A simple google search should have sounded a lot of alarm bells.”
As News 5 has previously reported, City Councilman Michael Polensek and County Executive Armond Budish provided letters endorsing the project. Land bank officials said the entity's mission is to get long delinquent, tax-forfeited properties back into the hands of people and developers who ultimately get the properties back on the tax rolls. However, because the land bank does not have equity interest in these properties, the agency does not have the ability to underwrite and evaluate deals like a financial institution or city economic development department, land bank officials said.
Sobel and Wade-Kilts also allege in the amended complaint that Williams and the other defendants engaged in fraud by peddling claims that North Coast had $46 million in private investment. Williams also allegedly falsely claimed that he had a signed letter of intent from a fast food chain that he claimed was going to purchase products from his company. The nonexistent investment and fabricated letter of intent was alleged used to secure the Kirby Ave. property, entice prospective employees and garner support from local officials, the lawsuit alleges.
“Sometimes it feels like we’re counselors instead of attorneys,” Wade-Kilts said. “Clients call us and they’re upset and there’s nothing we can do at this point other than to file the lawsuit and try to go after Williams and, now, Dr. Jenny and see if we can get them paid.”
News 5 also learned that one of Williams' alleged buisness partners, The Hoban Law Group, said they had never heard of Williams, North Coast nor Williams' other companies.
The litigation comes less than a month before North Coast Natural Solutions was supposed to open its hemp manufacturing facility at a sprawling, vacant industrial building on Kirby Ave. in Cleveland’s Glenville neighborhood. To date, no permits have been filed and the doors remain bolted shut.
Late last year and early this year, as many as 185 people were hired as part of the hemp manufacturing venture. Many of those employees attended more than a month’s worth of paid training in advance of the opening of the facility. The problems started almost immediately, former and current employees said. Many workers had to fill out multiple different W2s and I-9s because Williams claimed there were issues with the payroll system.
One of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, the former VP of human resources, was to receive a $25,000 signing bonus upon her being hired in January, according to her employment agreement. She has not received the bonus, nor has she received a paycheck.
Collectively, it is estimated that Williams owes his employees more than $500,000.
At the end of April, Williams reportedly told employees that his private investors did not want to cover the entire payroll expense at once and that employees would instead receive two separate checks. About a week later, Williams told employees that the bank could not print the checks because, “the bank ran out of paper,” the lawsuit alleges.
Williams has not returned repeated requests for comment. When News 5 spotted him driving his black Mercedes coupe on a public street last month, Williams rolled through a stop sign and kept on going. Wilkins has also not returned requests for comment.
