Breach And Chong: Lawsuit Alleges Legendary Pot Booster Made Joint Marketing Project Profits Go Up In Smoke
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) — A marijuana marketing company is harshing Tommy Chong's mellow, accusing the longtime pot advocate of cutting them out of profits and hacking their social media accounts.
Evergreen Licensing LLC sued the "Up In Smoke" actor and his son Paris Chong in Los Angeles Friday. According to court papers, Evergreen, which describes itself as "a brand building and acquiring company focused on the emerging cannabis industry," is seeking unspecified damages on allegations of breach of contract, fraud, and unjust enrichment stemming from a plan to market marijuana products, City News Service reports.
The suit alleges that after three years and $1 million Evergreen spent on the joint venture, Chong, his son and business associate Jon-Paul Cowen devised a scheme to "take it all away, even hacking into Evergreen's Gmail account in order to misappropriate social media sites that plaintiffs created for the project," according to CNS.
The suit from Evergreen founder Brian Vecchio goes on to say the company believed Chong was a "trustworthy, pot-smoking, laid back, good guy," but found out he was "anything but that type [of] individual in his business dealings with them."
A 2015 photo on Evergreen's Facebook page shows someone who appears to be Vecchio with his arm around Chong.
An earlier post on Evergreen's page gave condolences to Chong, who had recently made public the news of his recurrence of prostate cancer.
In recent years, Chong has become a vocal advocate of marijuana legalization. He has marketed things like "Tommy Chong's Smoke Swipe" wipes and the Chong's Choice brand of marijuana-related products.
The 79-year-old Canadian actor gained worldwide fame in the 1970s as one half of the weed-smoking comedy duo Cheech and Chong with Chicano actor Richard "Cheech" Marin. Together, they starred in "Up In Smoke," "Still Smokin" and "The Corsican Brothers," among many other hit films and comedy albums.
Chong served a nine-month prison sentence in 2004 for shipping bongs to Pennsylvania.
