Is Jimmy Mengel a Scam Artist? – The Story of an Acclaimed Cannabis Investing Expert

Jimmy Mengel's Claims 

Jimmy Mengel claims to have traveled the world to write about the financial industry and personal finance, been a keynote speaker at wealth symposiums in Copenhagen, San Francisco, Toronto, Las Vegas, and Orlando, documented presidential and senate candidates in New Mexico and Washington, D.C., and interviewed celebrities like Shaquille O'Neill, Kevin O'Leary, and Gene Simmons about "how and why they've made their millions."

"My writing has taken me all over the world, from the start of the legal cannabis industry in the sleepy towns of Canada to booming agriculture in the heart of Colombia and even to the soil-rich mountains of Transylvania," says Jimmy, who takes pride in knowing how to "write the most brilliant material in the world" and how to market and sell it.

But are these claims true? I wouldn't know yet until I'm able to take a deep look into his investment newsletters and advisory services.

The Outsider Club & His Advisory Services

First of all, let's look at the Outsider Club, an investment community where Jimmy Mengel is the managing editor.

The Outsider Club

The Outsider Club is a financial news website that alerts subscribers to new investment opportunities and offers "expert opinion and guidance on saving, retirement and financial planning, taxes, investments, and generally how to financially thrive on your own, independent of the banking system and government."

According to the information on its website, "The Outsider Club is a group of people ready to take our finances into our own hands; to manage our own investments; [and] to not give into a system that skims off the top until it's time for you to retire."

Newsletters

Now, let's take a look at Jimmy Mengel's newsletters more closely before going over his teasers down the line.

"The Crow's Nest"

"The Crow's Nest" is one of Jimmy Mengel's newsletters, which "will teach you how to completely take control of your finances — from buying stocks to plotting your retirement, taking advantage of tax breaks, and simply plugging the money leaks that threaten to sink you," Jimmy Mengel says. "We've created [an] easy-to-follow program that will help secure your finances, grow what you have, and allow you to retire comfortably instead of working until you drop — even if you've never bought a stock in your life."

Each edition of the newsletter is divided into four areas, namely charting the course, plugging the leaks, tying down the mast, and plundering, all aimed at helping you "demystify your finances and arm you with the knowledge and research you need to save, grow your money, and prosper all on your own."

"Adventure Capitalist"

The "Adventure Capitalist," another of Jimmy Mengel's newsletters, is a three-step strategy called the "Profit Runway," which includes three steps, namely the taxi, the takeoff, and the landing.

The "Adventure Capitalist" was founded on the principle that "you need to get off of your computer and visit the companies that you’re covering," "inspect the facilities," and "talk to the management — all the way to the CEO." It's all about the "boots on the ground" investing philosophy, which has made Jimmy Mengel travel to "Colombia, Copenhagen, Canada, California, and even Transylvania in order to bring his readers stock picks that most of the world has never even heard of." 

"The hard work and frequent flier miles have paid off," says Jimmy. "There’s going to be more travel. More research. More interviews from my network of financial contacts. In short, more of the high-adventure research that’s led to my triple-digit winners and beyond."

A one-year subscription to the newsletter costs $1,999 with a purported three-month refund policy.

"The Marijuana Manifesto"

"The Marijuana Manifesto" is Jimmy Mengel's "marijuana-focused stock advisory considered as an authority on marijuana investing."

The newsletter was launched in 2017 by Jimmy Mengel in the hopes of the legalization of cannabis in Canada on April 20, 2017 to help people navigate the cannabis industry and "rates these stocks depending on your risk tolerance and ability to move quickly and meet your investing style."

It allegedly features robust profiles on all the most lucrative cannabis companies in the world; weekly "Pot Profit Alerts" to keep subscribers up-to-date on their investments; in-depth interviews with CEOs, entrepreneurs, growers, doctors, lawyers, and everyone involved in the business; video tours of marijuana facilities worldwide; Q & A with readers to make sure all their questions are answered; and buy and sell alerts on the best of the bunch.

Teasers

Having gone over Jimmy Mengel's newsletters, let's quickly switch to his investment teasers, namely "Three Tiny Pot Stocks to Surge on Imminent April 20 Announcement," "God Chip" and "Tesla Killer."

"Three Tiny Pot Stocks to Surge on Imminent April 20 Announcement"

"Three Tiny Pot Stocks to Surge on Imminent April 20 Announcement" is a pitch used by Jimmy Mengel to tease "The Marijuana Manifesto," his marijuana-only newsletter going for about $2,000 in annual subscription.

In the presentation, Jimmy raised the hopes of investors about the potential surge in three pot stocks–codenamed the "Green Rush Plays"–when the "$200 billion" Canadian cannabis industry becomes fully legalized.

According to Jimmy, the law would come into force on April 20, 2017 following the declaration of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

This would spark "a 17,400% sales surge that will mint all-new millionaires" within 24 hours; 200 marijuana stores would open; and $2 million would be generated in taxes, says Jimmy.

Jimmy also claimed that government insiders were moving their money into cannabis and seeing bigger profits than their salaries, adding that "certain well-positioned pot stocks will explode for 1,000% gains or higher virtually overnight" after the announcement.

However, some of these claims weren't something I could independently verify, but I'm sure the recreational use of cannabis wasn't legalized in Canada until October 2018. So, the legalization took place more than a year later, contrary to Jimmy's prediction.

Jimmy's projection of the Canadian cannabis industry was just a rough estimate of an expected $126 million growth in sales in 2017 to $22 billion in the next three or four years. In 2022, five years after Jimmy's prediction, legal marijuana sales were projected at $4.7 billion. This is a far cry from his estimate and is even higher than 2021 figures at $3.8 billion.

So, Jimmy wasn't quite sure that pot stocks would surge to that level, but just wanted to lure people into buying his newsletter.

"God Chip"

The "God Chip" is Jimmy Mengel's presentation about a microprocessor, which he claims would "retain U.S. dominance" and "make early investors 12,795% returns on their money." 

"Tesla Killer"

The "Tesla Killer" is another of Jimmy Mengel's presentations, which talks about a new fuel technology he claims would make Tesla obsolete and increase the value of its stock by as much as 11,666%. 

In the presentation, Jimmy touts that the technology has no carbon emissions, involves "blue gas," is 300 times more powerful than oil, and would cost next to nothing to fill up your tank.

A Look at His Background

Now, let's take a look at Jimmy Mengel's background so we can get to know him better and see if we can substantiate some of the bold claims he often makes about himself and his services.

Education

Jimmy Mengel claims to have studied mass communication at Towson University, a public university in Towson, Maryland between 2000 and 2005.

If you take a closer look at the time Jimmy entered college and the time he graduated, you'll see that there's a five-year gap in-between the dates.

So, Jimmy studied for a bachelor's degree in mass communication for five years? Is that even normal? Let's find out first.

In the U.S., it typically takes four years to complete a bachelor's degree in all liberal arts, humanities, and social science courses, including English, history, psychology, or communications, which Jimmy claims to have studied for five years.

However, there are situations where a student may need an extra year or more to complete a bachelor's degree in the country, like studying part-time, switching majors, high school credits, community college credits, summer classes, and dropping classes.

So, it's possible that Jimmy spent five years in college for some of these reasons, which made it difficult for him to earn the 120 credits required to graduate with a bachelor's degree in record time.

Now that we're done with Jimmy's educational background, let's look at his professional experience to see if he's really what he claims to be.

Career Experience

In 2005, probably immediately after college, Jimmy Mengel started his career at The Agora, where he worked as the market manager of Agora Health Books, publishers of natural health literature. He later moved to Agora Health in 2008, where he was the managing editor of Healthier Talk, a natural health website.

In 2010, Jimmy joined Angel Publishing as the director of customer engagement, where he allegedly created, directed, and managed the customer care division of the publishing company, hiring and training representatives and "ensuring top-level care for our readers and subscribers."

In 2012, Jimmy was elevated to the position of Investment Director at The Crow's Nest and The Adventure Capitalist, and Managing Editor of the Outsider Club, all business interests of Agora Publishing.

All these experiences may have given Jimmy an edge in the publishing industry, both from the writer's perspective and the marketing side of the business.

Complaints

I won't call Jimmy Mengel a scammer yet until I have looked at a few complaints about his services that I found in the course of my investigation, some of which are worth mentioning here.

Misleading Advertising

Pissed-off subscribers have described some of Jimmy Mengel's services as misleading.

Clarence Penticuff, from the U.S., says he was fooled by these guys who seemed so straightforward, well and nice. "I was taken in but after trying to find some legitimate recommendations I am attempting to get my money back," Clarence explains. "Their leads are to other scammers, who want money to reveal the "one stock" you must have." 

Peter, who shared his experience from Britain in 2021, called the Outsider Club "another scam" because he "unfortunately subscribed to this stock advice newsletter," but it was "absolute rubbish." "Instead of giving you the names of the company(ies) you have to watch an advertising" spiel about "how wonderful this product is and how clever the commentator himself is," Peter laments. "I am at a loss to know how to get the names of the companies in which to invest. (Maybe that's a good thing). I just hope I can unsubscribe and save my future money." 

"This whole sector is loaded with speculators," Vic says. "Most of the price run up was done last year on these stocks, and some have sold and taken the money to new ventures like Toronto real estate up here in Canada."

David Francy, an American, says he subscribed to the Outsider Club and purchased eight stock recommendations but had "lost 47% of my investment not including my membership fees," with "one stock in the black." 

Fred, another subscriber from the U.S., laments that he listened to one of the infomercials of the Outsider Club, paid $69 to join, received their emails and recommended investments, and invested over $12,000 in the recommended stock, but the stock dropped by over 20% within a few days. 

Wrong Predictions

Subscribers have also accused Jimmy Mengel of making wrong predictions.

According to a Stock Gumshoe review on Jimmy Mengel's "The Marijuana Manifesto" pitch–"Three Tiny Pot Stocks to Surge on Imminent April 20 Announcement"–pot "stocks have done nothing but go down lately."

For George, the "Tesla Killer" stock was above Jimmy's estimate. "This stock is not $3.00 and hasn’t been for a year," George explains, saying it was even between $9 and $11 in January 2020 and $18 as at October of the same year. "So I’m not sure why all the fuss about something that already happened."

Warren Jones also shared a similar experience.

"You would think that this stock’s record would show a rapid and continuing rise, but that is not the case. It closed at $9.56 on May 11th, 2020, and $14.38 on May 10,2021," Warren Jones reveals. "In between, it managed to reach the 40s on February 8th, 9th, and 10th of 2021, but it has mostly been in the 10s and 20s. Not the record you might have expected after hearing the spiel for it. I was "hot to trot" then, but no longer."

Hidden Information

Subscribers of Jimmy Mengel's services have also complained about the lack of transparency in the details of his subscriptions. 

"The Marijuana Manifesto," according to Marcia Cox, is one of those sales letters that don't "show the price until you’ve given your details."

John "tried to subscribe to [The] Marijuana Manifesto but backed out due to not knowing the price before all detail was given," saying The Outsider Club appeared not to be "an upright organization."

No Communication & Lack of Cancelations

Pissed-off customers of the Outsider Club have also lashed out at them for their inability to reach out to the company when the need arises.

Paul Propergol, a Costa Rican, described the Outsider Club as a "complete scam" because there's no way you can contact them and you can't cancel a subscription even if they say you could, advising others to stay away as far as possible because they would "constantly spam you to try to get more money out of you. Don't be as stupid as me." 

Callie, a British subscriber, wanted to cancel an Outsider Club subscription in April 2019 after signing up the previous year but couldn't do that, adding that the "Outsider Club failed to respond to my calls or emails." 

Disappearing Subscriptions

Although Des D'Costa, from Canada, got "some valuable tips and advice" from the Outsider Club, two of Des annual paid subscriptions disappeared one day–more than eight months before expiry–without any explanation, "compensation, or substitution."

Two of their "most valuable editors" also disappeared, and Des couldn't contact anyone, not even by phone or email. "My fees [are] gone! I'm not sure what changed, but what was once really good, is now about as close to a sham as it gets," Des laments. "Be careful here." 

Unauthorized Charges

Myron Martin, who subscribed to "The Crow's Nest" some years ago, says he was surprised that his Visa card was charged for the renewal of his subscription months after expiration, something he didn't authorize.

"They denied my account showed a subscription to Crow’s Nest and I am getting a run around trying to get a refund," says Myron Martin, adding that he couldn't reach Angel Publishing, the service provider, by phone, but only by email and fax.

Callie, already cited above, canceled her credit card when she no longer needed the Outsider Club's newsletter and got a new card from her credit card company, but the Outsider Club went ahead and debited her twice.

"They had no authority to do so. They were not given the new card details, but I have been informed by my card issuer, they would have applied to MasterCard for the new number and taken the payment without authority to do so," Callie laments. "This is fraud and theft: I have emailed and rung them several times - they claim they will respond within 48 hours. They consistently fail to do so. Not only have they taken money from my account, ostensibly for a new subscription, I now receive absolutely no product from them at all - no emails, no notifications, no product. Clearly this is a company that is dishonest and has something to hide.....be very, very wary of signing up for anything with them."

Concerns

I think I wasn't able to find the name of Jimmy Mengel on the list of editors on the Outsider Club website. Instead, I saw the likes of Jason Simpkins, Luke Burgess, and Alexander Boulden listed as editors.

So, Jimmy could have left the Outsider Club out of frustration, going by the lot of negative comments from subscribers.

Maybe he's one of the two "most valuable editors" of the Outsider Club, whom Des D'Costa, an angry Canadian subscriber, said had disappeared. 

Track Record

"What is Jimmy Mengel's track record?" you may ask. 

For sure, I can tell you that I have only come across one testimonial about Jimmy's services at the time of this writing, despite his often bogus claims to the contrary.

Des D'Costa, a Canadian subscriber already quoted, is the only person mentioned in this article who confessed to having gotten "some valuable tips and advice" from the Outsider Club," although Des still had some bad experience like others.

Are His Services Worth It? 

Wrapping up

While Jimmy Mengel's claims of traveling the world to write about the financial industry and personal finance, being a keynote speaker at wealth symposiums in Copenhagen, San Francisco, Toronto, Las Vegas, and Orlando, documenting presidential and senate candidates in New Mexico and Washington D.C., and interviewing celebrities like Shaquille O'Neill, Kevin O'Leary, and Gene Simmons "how and why they've made their millions" may have been true, I can only say that they're all meant to sway his audience and entice them with his services. 

There's also no iota of truth in the claim he's knowledgeable about the cannabis industry and could well predict pot stocks.

But, like Jimmy said, he knows how to "write the most brilliant material in the world" and how to market and sell it. So, it's no surprise that he's doing well at writing, marketing, and selling his services, which have little or no impact on his subscribers, as you can see from the tons of subscriber comments already reviewed.

And don't forget that Jimmy learned all these advertising tricks at The Agora, the Outsider Club's notorious parent company.

So, Jimmy Mengel's services can only be as good as The Agora's, but I'll now leave you here to decide for yourself whether Jimmy Mengel is legit or a scammer, having read this investigative piece from the beginning to the end.