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Remember Vinco Ventures, the company that was the subject of a hostile takeover attempt by means of allegedly swiped EDGAR codes?  Well, believe it or not, things have gotten even stranger there.  When last we visited with Vinco, a Nevada court had granted a temporary restraining order against Ted Farnsworth & certain of his associates prohibiting them from holding themselves out as being employed by Vinco or acting on its behalf and requiring them to turn over the company’s EDGAR codes.

That Nevada court has now inserted itself more deeply into the question of who should run the company, and ultimately decided that former Nevada Secretary of State Ross Miller should serve as one of its co-CEOs.  I suppose that might raise some eyebrows on its own, but what’s really amazing is how the appointment came to pass.  This excerpt from a recent post on Business Law Prof Blog explains:

How did Mr. Miller get picked for this role? A transcript of the relatively brief hearing reveals that the idea was pitched to the Court by one of Farnsworth’s attorneys. As the attorney explained it “my proposal is going to be that Mr. Colucci, Lisa King, and then, a third-party, who just happened to wander in the courtroom today, because he was a witness in the case next door, Mr. Ross Miller, be appointed as co-CEO.” The attorney then revealed that he had “vetted Mr. Miller. He said he’ll do it. He used to be the Secretary of State of Nevada. If you remember, his father was the governor for 10 years not even 8, but 10 years. And he does do corporate law. And he says he’s interested in it. So we’re going to propose him as the co-CEO.”

Yes, you read that correctly – a politician randomly walked into a Nevada courtroom & ended up co-CEO of a public company. But that’s not the end of the story. Apparently, Vinco settled the litigation with the Farnsworth Group last week.  According to this Form 8-K filing, that settlement resulted in a board and management shakeup, and when the dust settled, Mr. Miller found himself the sole CEO of Vinco Ventures. I’ll grant you that this isn’t your run of the mill executive search process, but there doesn’t appear to be much about Vinco that’s run of the mill.

– John Jenkins