What were they drinking?
Two ad men who offered free beer to investors as part of a bid to buy the Pabst Brewing Co. agreed to a cease-and-desist order yesterday to settle charges of violating securities law.
Michael Migliozzi II and Brian Flatow got more than $200 million in pledges from 5-million-plus lager lovers after they set up the BuyaBeerCompany.com Web site in November 2009.
In addition to shares in the corporate ownership of hipster favorite Pabst Blue Ribbon, they promised that investors would receive “beer of a value equal to the amount invested.”
But their sudsy scheme got skunked by the Securities and Exchange Commission, which said Migliozzi and Flatow failed to register their offering plan and make mandatory financial disclosures.
The men’s lawyer, Steven Berkowitz, said the longtime friends “thought this would be an interesting experiment” but that “it never entered their minds that there could be a regulatory response.”