Search Results: fraud (57)

Scott Pack has been indicted by an Arapahoe County grand jury for what attorney Matthew Buck has called “the largest fraud case in the history of Colorado’s marijuana industry.” Buck, who filed a lawsuit in the matter earlier this year, says the grand jury’s findings tie Pack to what prosecutors describe as a massive operation that grew marijuana for distribution outside Colorado and previously led to the indictment of sixteen people, including Pack associate Rudy Saenz. Among those reportedly indicted along with Pack is Renee Rayton, a former officer for the state’s Marijuana Enforcement Division.

The collapse of the U.S. housing bubble wreaked tremendous amounts of misery on homeowners, who suddenly discovered that they owed more on their mortgages than their houses were worth, or found themselves in overbuilt and mostly vacant subdivisions, or could no longer afford ballooning mortgage payments. But whereas they saw their hopes for future solvency flushed down with the rest of the global economy, Julius and Jarrod Williams, two brothers from McKinney, Texas, saw opportunity.
For the rest of this strange and weird saga, check out the Dallas Observer.

Later today, the Colorado Attorney General’s office will formally release a 71-count indictment targeting businessman Conley Hoskins and eleven others with defrauding investors who wanted to cash in on the state’s booming medical marijuana industry.
Denver Westword got an early look at the document, which should be released shortly. It details what prosecutors believe was a complex plot involving Jane Medicals, whose website notes locations in Denver and Lakewood. Click over to the Latest Word blog for more.

Armando Trull/WAMU
Dhar Mann, 27, has been charged with defrauding the city of Oakland

Dhar Mann, a controversial young businessman who sought fame and fortune as an entrepreneur in the medical marijuana industry, was charged Thursday with 13 felonies for allegedly defrauding an Oakland, California grant program that helps property owners pay for renovations.

Alameda County prosecutors charged Mann, 27, with stealing thousands of dollars from Oakland in 2008 and 2009, report Demian Bulwa and Matthai Kuruvila at SFGate. Mann was not arrested; his arraignment is scheduled for Wednesday.
Mann’s attorney, John Runfola, admitted that his client “took shortcuts” in the grant program, but claimed the charges were trumped up.

A Miami man flew to Denver International Airport on a quest to buy a specific BMW, but he didn’t find a car. Instead, a lawsuit alleges, he was extorted for $50 by an Advantage Rent A Car employee and given a rental car with forty pounds of marijuana in the trunk.

The lawsuit, filed in Colorado district court by Woodrow & Peluso LLC on behalf of Nang Thai, is seeking damages as a result of Advantage’s “fraudulent conduct, theft and serious breaches of conduct.” The lawsuit accuses Advantage of violating the Colorado Consumer Protection Act and committing civil theft, false imprisonment, breach of contract, fraudulent concealment and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

Update: After the publication of this post, Scott Pack provided us with additional information that’s intended to show he did nothing to defraud the plaintiffs in a lawsuit against him and acted in a manner that was completely legal and ethical. See it below, following our previous coverage.

Original post: Attorney Matthew Buck has filed a lawsuit in what he calls “the largest fraud case in the history of Colorado’s marijuana industry.” This contention is rejected by Scott Pack, the entrepreneur at the center of it.

No criminal charges have been pressed against Pack at this writing. But in the complaint, on view below, Buck’s clients, Pierre and Christophe Raygot, claim to have been bilked out of $500,000 by Pack and Rudy Saenz, the latter of whom was among sixteen people indicted last month in what prosecutors describe as a massive operation that grew marijuana for distribution outside Colorado. And Buck maintains that seventeen additional investors were also taken by Pack and Saenz; he estimates the total losses at more than $5.3 million.

“We’ve never seen anything close to this” in the Colorado cannabis business, Buck says. “I’ve never seen investments this great fail, let alone fraud on this scale. And our law firm” — Corry & Associates — “has been doing this for seventeen years,” since the approval, in the year 2000, of Amendment 20, which legalized medical marijuana in the state.

They opposed REC sales in Arizona.

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Several former executives of Insys Therapeutics, which sells the powerful opiate fentanyl, were arrested accused of “ bribing doctors, defrauding insurance companies, and fueling America’s opioid addiction crisis.” Insys contributed to successfully defeat Arizona’s November REC vote.

GW Pharmaceuticals reported some “pretty grim” quarterly numbers, but it could benefit from its anti-epilepsy experimental drug Epidolex which is in late stage clinical trials.

Bloomberg suggests there’s a Canadian pot-stock bubble.

Legalization in more states could depress California’s export market. And in another interesting piece by Madison Margolin, California’s “extract artisans” now have some legal protections from meth-lab laws.

Vice dives into regulatory tech which it calls the “ cannabis surveillance state.

Home grow system Leaf raised $2M.

Celebrity-branded weed costs about 24% more than unbranded. Forbes asks if the trend has gone too far.

Commercial landlords in northern California prepare for legalization.

Quartz profiles marketing company Octavia Wellness which throws pot parties for seniors.  The art world is joining efforts to re-brand cannabis.

The Denver Post’s Cannabist won most influential media source at the cannabis business awards.

A new study in Pharmacological Research, by Czech and Italian researchers, found that pot is an aphrodisiac. Read the study here.

Another study found that marijuana use may damage eyesight.

New York state wants patients to be able to access MED in hospitals. A study found that cannabis users have lower in-hospital mortality rates.

In an effort to reduce opioid use, Oregon wants opioid patients monitored for marijuana use. The health agency view on marijuana vis a vis opioid use is unclear.

The world’s first clinical trial to test MED for chemotherapy patients is beginning in Australia.

A device developed by Israeli start-up distributes “ nano-droplets” of CBD as a nutraceutical to relieve inflammation and pain is on sale in the U.S. KKTV looked at the cannabis research happening at Colorado State-Pueblo.

The U.S. is lagging Israel and other countries in cannabis research.

The Washington [state]CannaBusiness Association is starting a fund to support MED access for the needy.

 

Prohibition is part of the international order.

Here’s your daily round-up of pot-news, excerpted from the newsletter WeedWeek. Download WeedWeek’s free 2016 election guide here.

As Canada moves to legalize it has two options regarding international treaties to which it is a part. It could take a “ principled stand” against prohibition or quietly withdraw from the treaties and then attempt to re-enter them with exemptions. Canada being Canada, it is leaning towards the quiet approach.

After retiring from the league he joined the industry.

Here’s your daily round-up of pot-news, excerpted from the newsletter WeedWeek. Download WeedWeek’s free 2016 election guide here.

Cannabis activist and former NFL-player Eugene Monroe is part of a company suing Maryland regulatorsfor rejecting its permit application. Maryland lawmaker Dr. Dan K. Morhain faces an ethics investigation. He championed MED and serves as the medical advisor to a MED company.
Colorado Springs Mayor and legalization opponent John Suthers (R) told an Arizona audience todecriminalize, don’t legalize. Colorado Springs ordered 9 consumption clubs to “ cease and desist” operations.
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