Hashish retailer MedMen is in search of to subpoena New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s (D) workplace in a lawsuit that alleges the administration used its affect to assist Ascend Wellness buy MedMen for $75 million as MedMen was set to finish the deal, the New York Post experiences.
Within the state Supreme Courtroom paperwork outlined by the Publish, MedMen claims that Hochul and her workplace compelled MedMen to promote its New York operations as a favor to political contributors. Particularly, the lawsuit alleges that Hochul and members of her administration pushed the Hashish Management Board to approve the deal after failing to take action for practically a yr – simply sooner or later after Ascend executives allegedly attended a fundraiser for the governor’s reelection marketing campaign. The fundraiser was hosted by Feuerstein Kulick, who’s described within the lawsuit as “a significant participant within the subject of hashish legislation” who “advises firms on successful licenses from state governments,” the report says. A spokesman for Feuerstein Kulick denied to the Publish that Ascend representatives have been at that fundraiser.
MedMen had agreed to the deal a yr in the past however had sought to not transfer ahead in the previous couple of months because the state began the licensing course of – with Hochul together with $1.25 billion in cannabis-derived revenues over the following 5 years in her government price range. MedMen doubtless needed the deal to run out on the January 1 deadline as they now believed the $75 million was too low, the report says.
On October 28, Ascend made three donations to Buddies of Kathy Hochul totaling $15,000, based on state Board of Elections knowledge outlined by the Publish. Two days after the fundraising occasion, Hochul’s secretary Karen Persichilli Keogh and two different aides met with Ascend CEO Abner Kurtin and different firm representatives, the report says. State hashish regulators in the end authorized the deal on December 28.
A spokesperson for the governor advised the Publish that the “allegations are stuffed with falsehoods, together with a gathering that by no means came about.”
“Not one of the governor’s senior workforce members names have ever met with these people,” the spokesperson mentioned within the assertion.
In an announcement, Ascend mentioned, “MedMen is basically difficult the regulators’ authority and ignoring the laws of the state’s medical program.”
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