[imagesource:here]

They say you should never do business with friends, and here’s a prime example of when things go south.

There’s two sides to every story, so we’re going to go through this one step by step and present the evidence we have in front of us.

So we first became aware of this story when readers sent us a link to Fury Marketing, who ran a piece titled “Local business woman has brand stolen right from under her nose“.

It lays out how a Southern Suburbs business called Coconut Connection, which sold coconut oil and a range of other products, was ‘stolen’ by a friend that Jenna Leigh Smuts was business partners with.

Here’s some of the basics from that account:

By 2017 she [Jenna] had a Facebook page of over 1,700 people, had become a local resident at many prominent markets and expanded her range to include baby products, banting friendly food as well as beauty products. To cope with her growing business she agreed to give a friend a role at Coconut Connection.

Jenna happily posted about this on her Coconut Connection Facebook page on 1 September, 2016…

On 27 April Jenna woke to find that she could not access her Facebook account. She had been removed as an admin. Gasp!

By 8 May the page name had been changed from Coconut Connection to Coconut Connect. The logo had changed accordingly and this was broadcast on the Facebook page. All customers completely unaware of the hijack that is taking place.

That post from May 8:

It is then alleged that “the contact details have been changed [and] Jenna’s cellphone number and email address have been removed – effectively cutting her off from her customers”.

The website address has also been changed, from www.coconutconnection.co.za to www.coconutconnection.co.

The website rebranding below, with the ‘original’ website and ‘fake website’ home pages:

We’re going to skip ahead a little and deal with the issue of stock being sold:

…this cheat is holding Coconut Connection stock which has promptly been “rebranded” to Coconut Connect and being sold to the unsuspecting public who are completely unaware they are being dragged into this saga.

Our impostor took her first step by merely sticking the new fake logo over the Original Coconut Connection logo. Her second deception was to edit Jenna’s labels to remove the true website and Jenna’s cell number.

And finally, the legal steps Jenna has taken:

Step 1: Contact the lawyers. Who promptly wrote up a letter to legally prove to stockists, suppliers and customers that Jenna is the legal and true owner. 

Step 2: Contact the police and lay a charge of fraud and theft.

Next step? Start telling people what is going on.

Seeing as though the Fury Marketing piece is spreading rapidly, with some estimating more than 2 000 shares already, that seems like a box well ticked.

Step 4: Accept the page is done and start afresh.

That last step involves Jenna creating a new Facebook page and awaiting the litigation proceedings.

That above is a summary of the full post – if you want to read that in its entirety head HERE.

Right, so by now you’re probably pretty worked up. Let’s introduce the other side of the argument, which comes from Heather Cheung, the woman accused of hijacking the business.

Heather reached out to us via email – we have published some of that below:

Dear 2oceansvibe Editor,

You may have seen this doing the rounds on social media…I have been accused of theft of a small business, however – I am not the thief in this story!!

…The link is being shared far and wide over social media, with no one bothering to check the facts of the slanderous article!

Below see:

1. My response
2. The story isn’t balanced
3. How social media is turning people into animals

First the response – which you can see in full over on Facebook HERE.

Hello Coconut Lovers!

…Please note that I am the so called ‘culprit’ mentioned in “The Original Coconut Connection’s” and Fury Marketing’s posts.

Please note that this matter is under legal review currently. I will post the legal documents on each share of this post, but there are many, many posts so please forgive me if I miss one.

This is a very serious issue.

Until 27 April 2017, I  was a 50% Shareholder in the UNREGISTERED business, Coconut Connection.

My shares have been revoked and thereby a large sum of money has been stolen from me.

I have not been bought out of my shares, nor have I been compensated in any way to date for my capital investment and dividends due.

In mid-May, Coconut Connection was registered as a (Pty) Ltd without my knowledge by the Administrator of the Facebook page “The Original Coconut Connection”, with herself as 100% Shareholder. This was done without my knowledge or consent.

I am suing for Defamation due to the slanderous posts, articles and comments about me personally and professionally, as well as the monies due to me.

I am now trading in competition with “The Original Coconut Connection” to try and recoup some of the monies stolen from me.

Please know that there are always 2 sides to a story, and to publicly air dirty laundry only does a brand damage. I naively thought that the truth would eventually come out on its own and therefore am only responding at this time.

Fury Marketing should check their facts and the other side of the story before publishing false allegations- I was not contacted for comment nor asked my position before this slanderous article was published.

I completely respect the choice to support “The Original Coconut Connection” and hope that no one is let down in any way as I have been.

Thank you.

And on to points two and three, which are via the email sent our way:

2. This is not a plea to help in a “victim” sob story, but rather a plea to assist in getting a balanced and factually correct view across before this ruins my business and renders me without an income.

3. Social Media is turning people into animals- I am receiving the most awful threatening messages, comments, emails and calls! No one is asking for a comment nor my position on the issue. The article is simply taken as fact!!

Social media is ruthless, this we know. Just the other day I saw a hectic rant about how Fred from Constantia is sick of Willards Crisps not filling the packets like they used to, followed shortly thereafter by Susan from Milnerton being angry with her mother-in-law.

Scenes.

Finally the response from Jenna, via her new Facebook page called ‘The Original Coconut Connection‘, to Heather’s Facebook post we quoted from above:

[source:furymarketing]