Desperate Beekeepers and Unsuspecting Public are Scam Targets

Update 07/06/2025: This is not old news yet. See the update at the end of the article.

Beekeepers and donors that care about bees are being targeted by what sure looks like a big scam. As a hobbyist beekeeper I only know peripherally what is happening in the world of commercial beekeeping. But when my beekeeper friend Philip Smith came to me with latest rage in beekeeping on the internet, I had to look into it. The premise is that bees are in trouble, so are our beekeepers, and without bees and beekeepers, then so is our food supply. There is a “solution” proposed by websites such as Geocure and TrillionBeesEarth. You can check out some of the slick internet sites yourself. There are also plenty of dubious press releases describing how beekeepers are flocking to the project. There is a news release purporting to announce the “Trillion Bees Coalition” at the climate conference COP28. What is missing from all of this slick material are the names of individuals involved in putting this new venture together.

The Geocure “plan” includes buying up commercial beekeepers’ beehives for $700 each, but then paying the beekeepers a salary for still running their colonies. And they get a new pick-up truck and paid vacations! The funding comes from big multinationals you might be familiar with as well as direct donations where you can give money on their website. It is not just beekeepers being targeted with this scam. Here is a page from TrillionBees:

The plan includes buying up millions of acres of “NON-GMO” land for a “BeeHab Strategic Reserves,” and to increase the number of beehives in the United states by a factor of three in the next few years. A grandiose vision.

This all seems “to good to be true” for our commercial beekeepers. Fifty years ago I considered getting into beekeeping commercially. I was young and liked hard work. I built up a dozen hives and made a bunch of hive splits and harvested 500 pounds of honey that year. What I learned is that honey is heavy! You need trucks, forklifts, extraction equipment and lots of hives to build. It was not an easy life, and that was before the varroa mites, neonicotinoid insecticides, and fake Chinese honey came on the scene. I went to college instead. These days beekeepers are stressed and the future of the profession is uncertain. The Geocure offer sure looks enticing!

What should come up, but a court document from U.S. District Court in Hawaii, Baldwin vs Wilson. I’m no lawyer, but what this looks like to me an agreement to separate the “Attorney Defendants” who were included in the plaintiff’s complaint from the actual defendants in a lawsuit involving “Defendant Christopher G. Glynn aka Christian J. Hemmann (“Glynn”) and corporate Defendants Geocure Global Hive Cooperative, Purehive Maui Beehab, LLC, Purehive Hawaiian Islands, Inc., and Purehive, Inc. (collectively, the “Hive Defendants”) In a footnote in this document it was noted that Glynn was held at the Federal Correctional Institute Loretto in Cresson, PA. and was released on March 27, 2023. I did not run into any details of the underlying lawsuit in Hawaii, but it seemed to involve some media/computer people. If I were to guess what went on here, Glynn convinced his attorney friend Randon Wilson, who helped with his trademark, to help out again when he got in trouble in Hawaii. Soon thereafter Wilson saw what he was dealing with and wanted nothing to do with Glynn.

With a name and Google there was more to do… and what should pop up — but LOTS:

This man has been duping the unsuspecting for a long time. I suspect that while he was in prison for previous crimes, he was building websites for his biggest scam ever – GeoCure and TrillionBeesEarth.

The GeocCure and TrillionBeesEarth websites are still running strong. I’m guessing the main way this scam works is to string along the beekeepers as long as possible, getting as many onboard as possible to add legitimacy to the project and get private donations on the website to come pouring in. It will surely all come crashing down at some point.

There is no question that beekeepers would like there to be a magic bullet to fix all of their problems and just to give them an easier time to enjoy life, with a new pickup and a vacation, but I certainly would not trust Christopher Glynn and his corporate concoctions with a penny!

Update 07/06/25: I learned recently that Glynn and his associates are still trying to promote their GeoCure plan. Fortunately, a skeptical and attentive legal mind found this original blog post, followed the leads here, and managed to obtain the complaints filed in the Baldwin vs Wilson Hawaii case. And what a read these are! For completeness you can read the complaints here and here. It becomes clear that I gave Wilson too much credit for his naiveté. It appears that his role in the scam was to give the appearance of legal and financial legitimacy and to facilitate the transfer of funds. The Baldwin vs Wilson case was settled as to the “attorney” defendants, Wilson, and his law firm. The settlement amount was not disclosed. The companion litigation involving several other plaintiffs appears to be still ongoing.