A Las Vegas investor has asked ML Macadamia Orchards LP for a seat on its general partner’s board of directors after amassing a 7.8 percent stake in the company.

Barry W. Blank filed a disclosure statement at the Securities and Exchange Commission yesterday showing he owned 582,250 of the Hilo-based company’s shares. Blank is listed as a broker for Cantone Research, a Las Vegas firm that concentrates on companies with small market capitalizations.
Blank’s acquisitions were made through a living trust he controls.
The filing follows one by a Colorado investor, Farhad “Fred” Ebrahimi, who recently had a tender offer for ML Macadamia shares. Ebrahimi and affiliated investors now own 38.4 percent of the world’s largest grower of premium macadamia nuts.