Tilray Brands VS Curaleaf Let's start from the beginning with Curaleaf a peer of Tilray Brands.
In January, the Cannabis Control Commission became the first state agency to launch an investigation into Curaleaf, a locally based company with 146 stores in 21 states, now the largest licensed weed company in the world. Regulators are looking into whether the company and its shareholders violated state law by allegedly accepting millions of dollars in loans from sanctioned Russian billionaire Roman Ambramovich.
Two of Ambramovich’s companies pumped over $400 million into Curaleaf and its top shareholders between 2017 and 2021 via secret offshore accounts, according to financial records leaked on the nonprofit whistleblower website Distributed Denial of Secrets in December and first reported by Forensic News. Following the data leak, internal communications between Massachusetts regulators show concern about possible “red flags'' raised by reporting on possible financial ties.
“This is a matter we will need the feds to advise on before we take action. It’s their guidance/sanctions,” one commissioner wrote to another in an internal exchange obtained by GBH News. Commissioners agreed to focus on investigating agreements, whether ownership was disclosed at any point, and any covenants, or conditions, attached to the loans that could legally be considered “control” over the loan agreements.
Curaleaf’s executive chairman Boris Jordan has repeatedly denied speculation about the company’s ties to Russia. But leaked documents reveal that Ambramovich was quietly funding the company via a British Virgin Islands LLC, Cetus Investments. Ambramovich, who owned the Chelsea Football Club before he was sanctioned, was allegedly referred to by staff at the LLC as “Mr Blue.” The football club’s nickname is “the Blues.”
Ambramovich was sanctioned in Europe, the United Kingdom and Canada in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year. Last summer, the U.S. government obtained a warrant to seize two private jets traced back to the oligarch, saying the billionaire violated strict sanction laws by having the planes flown to Russia without securing licenses or approval.
Massachusetts law requires that cannabis companies disclose the source of their capital, including the names of anyone who might have “direct or indirect control” over the company. Marijuana operators must also certify that all investments were “lawfully earned or obtained.”
Following Massachusetts, regulators in Connecticut and Vermont launched investigations into alleged financial ties between Curaleaf and Abramovich. In February, Curaleaf announced the closure of its operations in California, Colorado and Oregon “as part of its continued effort to streamline its business” according to a report filed with the federal Securities and Exchange Commission.
Curaleaf did not respond to a request for comment. In a statement to CT Insider last month, a representative said that the company has “nothing to hide, and we are disappointed that the continued misguided narrative to malign the company continues among journalistic outlets — despite the absence of any evidence supporting these false and defamatory claims."
Smith Ellis says he plans to return home soon, and feels safer as more information comes out — but he still has questions.
“How did this public records request get filled in a manner that required it to be deleted and had to be clawed back? What happened between Wednesday and Friday that led an agency of the government of Massachusetts to ask two journalists to take down a story after it had been published?” Smith Ellis said. “What scares me more than anything is the unknown."