Famous San Francisco pot brand scores $18M award against billionaire-backed investors

OG Article

Lester Black

Feb 26, 2025

A judge handed an $18 million preliminary award to a San Francisco-based global cannabis brand this month, marking the latest turn in a contentious dispute between the company’s founders and its investors.

0:09

/

0:15

Skip Ad

The battle has led Cookies and its early investors to attack each other in court, with both parties demanding over $100 million in damages. The investors, who also run a network of Cookies retail locations, have accused founder Gilbert Anthony “Berner” Milam Jr. and his co-founders of fraud. In turn, Milam has described the group as “predatory investors” attempting to take over his brand.

Advertisement

Article continues below this ad

A private administrative judge in San Francisco sided almost entirely with Milam and his executives on Feb. 14, although the judge agreed to far lesser damages than Cookies originally asked for, awarding about $17.9 million in damages plus attorneys’ fees; Milam and his colleagues had asked for over $118 million in damages. 

The award is subject to revision or appeal before a final award is issued in April, but attorneys for Cookies said in a court filing last week that the interim award is unlikely to be significantly modified. The attorneys wrote that the arbitrator’s interim award is “a clean-sweep victory for Cookies” and that the “issuance of the Final Award” against the investors “is obviously nigh.” 

Roger L. Scott, an attorney representing the investors, Cookies Retail LLC, said in an emailed statement to SFGATE that the arbitrator’s interim award is not enforceable and vowed to continue fighting their case. 

“The Superior Court remains the proper venue for this dispute and Cookies Retail, LLC will continue to raise the impropriety of Cookies actions as well as the interim award with the Superior Court in the near future, and will cooperate with any investigations that may be pending related to Cookies,” he said. 

Advertisement

Article continues below this ad

Neither Scott nor Cookies returned requests to clarify what investigations Scott was referencing.

The private arbitration decision would not normally be made public. However, the dispute is related to a court case filed in January 2023 by the same investors. Cookies entered the interim award last week as an exhibit for a motion to pause litigation in that court case until the arbitration is complete. 

The 48-page arbitrator’s finding is a vindication of sorts for Cookies’ San Francisco founders, but it also illustrates how Milam’s early business decisions led him to struggling to control his company from his investors, which include Orange County billionaire and venture capitalist Vinny Smith. 

According to the interim award, the investors said in one email that they were considering taking control of Cookies through a “blue wedding,” which was a reference to Cookie’s trademark blue logo as well as an episode of the TV drama “Game of Thrones” that depicted the “violent destruction of one family by another under the guise of togetherness at a wedding celebration,” according to the arbitrator’s statement of facts. 

Advertisement

Article continues below this ad

Parker Berling, the president of Cookies and a named defendant in the 2023 civil lawsuit, declined to answer specific questions from SFGATE related to the case but celebrated the interim award.

“We are pleased with the interim award and remain committed to building Cookies into a 100 year brand,” Berling said in an email.

The legal accusations boiled down largely complicated arguments over licensing fees and venture capital funding rounds, with both sides volleying enough legal attacks at each other to threaten the future of the brand. The investors were led by Brandon Johnson, a cannabis entrepreneur who runs a network of Cookies stores, as well as other cannabis brands. According to the arbitration award’s statement of facts, Johnson received investment from Gron Ventures, a limited liability company that receives funding from Smith’s venture capital fund, to run each cannabis Cookies location and select future store owners. 

It’s not clear how much of a relationship Milam’s Cookies has with Johnson’s company or what will happen to the Cookies network of stores, which are owned by a variety of investors. Cookies has already shut down some of its most famous locations, including its Haight Street store in San Francisco and its Melrose store in Los Angeles, although it has since opened a new location on Melrose Avenue. 

Advertisement

Article continues below this ad

There also appears to be a separate dispute with an investor named Ned Fussell, who has accused Cookies and Milam of using the famous pot brand to “bully others into paying them millions of dollars in personal benefits and kickbacks,” according to an active Los Angeles court case. Berling did not answer a question regarding the Fussell court case or the brand’s future with Johnson’s company.