Plus Brand Investor Alleges Hidden Sales Figures and Unpaid Returns

The central dispute in a Texas investor’s complaint against beverage and labeling technology company Plus Brand Industries Inc. is what its royalty statements showed—and what, he alleges, they hid. Stephen McCord says he invested at least $3 million in the company, received only $90,000, and later discovered that figures in the statements’ “GROSS SALES” column had been made invisible with white text.

The complaint, filed October 29 in the US District Court for the District of Wyoming, describes investments made from October 2023 through June 2025. McCord says he bought royalty investment units priced at $25,000 each, a promissory note carrying 22 percent annual interest, and millions of preferred shares. He alleges the company and its founder gave him assurances that the deal carried “absolutely no risk.”

Those assurances, as described in the complaint, included the founder’s prediction that the investment would “make 100X in the next six months.” The founder also allegedly said Plus Brand was “in the middle of our multiple patent valuations, expected to exceed one billion.” The filing does not establish whether those claims were accurate; they are part of McCord’s account of what he was told before and during his investment.

What the royalty statements allegedly showed

McCord says Plus Brand sent him five monthly statements during 2024. Each contained a “GROSS SALES” column, but the figures in that column did not appear on the printed pages. The statements described his payments as a “baseline monthly return,” a phrase the complaint says is absent from the royalty agreements.

According to the filing, the electronic versions contained numbers in the blank column, formatted in white so they could not be seen against the page. McCord alleges those figures matched the number of royalty units sold in each month multiplied by the $25,000 price per unit. If that account is correct, the hidden amounts represented money raised through unit sales, not revenue from selling water or other products.

That distinction matters to the complaint’s account of how McCord’s payments were funded. It alleges that Plus Brand paid royalties “at least in part with money raised from investors, including later purchasers of Units.” The filing does not provide a complete breakdown of the company’s cash flows, so the relationship between unit sales, operating income and payments to McCord remains disputed.

Disputed claims about an outside deal

A separate episode concerns a March 2025 announcement that boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. had completed a “$30 million” equity investment in Plus Brand. The company allegedly sent McCord an announcement describing the deal as the first time Plus Brand had taken in “meaningful outside capital.”

McCord says the underlying document was a non-binding term sheet for promotional services, rather than an agreement to provide cash. The complaint also cites a later message from the company’s chief operating officer saying the cash investment “has not yet been completed.” It quotes an October 2026 message from the founder stating that “[t]here has been no $10 million or $15 million investment in the company” and that “[t]he company has had no revenue since its last communication to shareholders.” These statements appear in the complaint; the filing alone does not resolve how the proposed deal was described or what ultimately happened.

Questions about ownership and sales compensation

The complaint also points to a difference between McCord’s signed preferred stock agreements and a capitalization table Plus Brand provided to a valuation firm in 2025. Although McCord says he had signed four such agreements, he alleges the table listed no preferred stock and did not include him. That discrepancy puts the recording of his claimed ownership at issue alongside the dispute over royalty calculations.

McCord further alleges that the person who introduced him to the opportunity had been barred by FINRA and was not registered to sell securities in Texas. The founder allegedly told McCord that he had paid this person about $1 million over three years to bring in deals and help close them. Yet, according to the complaint, Plus Brand’s amended Form D, submitted in May 2024, reported no sales compensation and no finder’s fees.

The filing also alleges that the founder had a 2005 felony conviction in Michigan, which a state financial authority found involved “fraud, dishonesty, or breach of trust.” It says an order barred the founder from certain roles in the financial industry and that McCord was not told about the matter before investing. Those assertions have not been tested in the case.

What McCord is seeking

The complaint brings 12 claims, including alleged violations of federal securities law and Texas securities law, fraud, breach of contract and breach of fiduciary duty. McCord asks to unwind his purchases or, alternatively, recover at least $2,910,000 in damages. He also seeks payment on the promissory note at 22 percent annual interest, a declaration of his share ownership, a full accounting and attorney’s fees.

The case puts several records at the center of the dispute: royalty statements, unit sales, signed stock agreements, the capitalization table and documents describing the proposed Mayweather deal. How those records compare with the parties’ agreements and communications will shape the claims. The allegations have not been tested, and no court has made findings or rulings in the case.