3/7/2023 0 Comments Holistic healing collective![]() ![]() “The register was opened for the benefit of the security camera and the customer, and the cash was placed in an alternative location or simply pocketed by the cashier,” the report stated. The report documented nearly 1,500 instances in which the 7 Stars cash register was opened but no sale was recorded. Similarly, the data that 7 Stars Holistic Healing, located on Pierce Street, provided the DA’s office “do not appear to be an accurate reflection of their sales activity,” according to the report. The DA accountant also wrote that the data Green Remedy provided “bears strong signs of manual manipulation.” In other words, the report suggests, it is possible that even more sales were concealed. The DA’s analysis, performed by Contra Costa District Attorney Forensic Accountant Bassem Banafa with data from 2012 to 2015, identified several instances in which the dispensaries appeared to have neglected to record transactions and hidden sales from regulators.Īccording to the DA report, Green Remedy Collective, operating out of a location on Hilltop Mall Road, is responsible for the lion’s share of unreported sales-potentially an estimated $6 million in “receipts that have not been reported to the City of Richmond or any regulatory authority.” The District Attorney’s forensic analysis indicates that trouble for Richmond’s three dispensaries and their owners began years before that lawsuit was filed. Harper’s audit and the DA report highlight the turbulent history of medical marijuana in Richmond-a new chapter of which has unfolded in recent months, as the city’s three dispensaries have battled an anti-trust lawsuit filed by another dispensary that has accused the three of monopolizing the local medical marijuana trade. “In addition, it appears that the members of the management team at all these dispensaries are misappropriating these profits for their own personal benefit.” “A portion of these profits appear to have been disguised through manipulation of financial data,” concluded the report. 10, 2015, found that Richmond’s three medical marijuana dispensaries-Green Remedy Collective, Holistic Healing Collective and 7 Stars Holistic Healing Collective-and their owners appeared to have manipulated financial data in order to profit from their sales “in direct conflict with state law.”According to state law, medical marijuana dispensaries must operate as nonprofits and the revenue generated must not exceed the amount necessary to cover the dispensary’s overhead and operating costs. A copy of the DA report received by Richmond Confidential last month indicates that the DA’s office estimated that Richmond’s dispensaries may have concealed up to nearly $7 million in unreported sales. A year later, another report-this one a forensic analysis conducted by the Contra Costa County District Attorney’s office-appeared to confirm his hunch. While Harper’s audit found “no direct evidence” of tax evasion or fraud among the city’s dispensaries, those cash transactions made him suspicious, he said. “None of the three collectives provided all information necessary for this audit,” he wrote in the report, dated Oct. Richmond hired Harper to determine whether the dispensaries were paying the correct amount of taxes to the city, but Harper said he was unable to do so. It would be relatively easy for the dispensaries to underreport their sales, he said, and thereby pay less in Richmond business taxes. While performing an internal audit of Richmond’s medical marijuana dispensaries in 2014, accountant Kevin Harper said he saw an industry that, in his words, was operating “in the shadows.”īanks leery of holding money used to purchase a drug still illegal under federal law forced dispensaries to deal mostly in cash, Harper said, creating the potential for corruption in the industry.Ĭash transactions allow dispensaries to potentially misrepresent their profits when reporting them to the city, Harper said in an interview this month. Jars of medical marijuana on display at a Richmond dispensary. ![]() Richmond dispensaries hid possibly millions in sales, profited illegally, DA report finds The main thing I am interested in is collecting the potentially large amount of taxes that may be due to the City of Richmond that remain unpaid. None of this is particularly surprising due to the fact that dispensaries are an extremely lucrative all-cash business. I have been told that the Richmond Police Department is conducting an investigation of its own that is not likely to be completed soon due to its complexity and scope. Richmond Confidential, the only local media that is actually doing investigative reporting, has covered a series of recent events that point to some serious problems involving Richmond’s marijuana dispensaries. Richmond Weed Purveyors May be in Deep Trouble
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