It’s not what you know but who’s looking out for you at the top – this is the harsh reality marijuana advocates in the sunshine state are refusing to stomach. This comes on the back of the State regulator allegedly granting a license to a company that will benefit from the operations of a separately licensed company.
The fraudulent nature of this move reeks of back-door deals and profiteering as it essentially aims to congeal two operations under the same investment company. Gotham Green investment firm is responsible for underwriting both companies, and Michael Weisser is leading the charge to sue the State regulator for this gross miscarriage of justice.
The Investor Takes On Multinational Corporation.
Gotham Green Partners is a multinational investment corporation hailing from Ontario, Canada. Their move to wrest control of iAnthus via a hostile takeover bid goes back to 2020 when the Superior Court of Justice in Ontario approved the proposal for recapitalization. Since then, the corporate powers that be have been busy behind the scenes with Florida’s state regulators, trying to bring the deal to its conclusion.
There are further intricacies to this situation which involve debt repayments iAnthus owed to Gotham Green Partners, which you can read about here.
Suffice it to say, Gotham Green Partners tend to wrest power wherever they can. This underlines the critical need for greater public awareness and an out-and-out push to hold the state regulator to higher standards of transparency so that multinational conglomerates don’t have their way. No one knows this better than Michael Weisser and the medical marijuana advocates who have rallied behind him. Weisser, also an investor in multistate iAnthus, the company Gotham Green Partners is trying to acquire, filed the suit last Friday in Tallahassee, at Florida’s 2nd Judicial court. This filing aims to stop the progress of Gotham Green Partners’ hostile buy-out of iAnthus.
Going By The Book
Weisser’s lawsuit is pretty standard, and there is a clear-cut case to be made here. Going by the book – in this case, Florida’s state laws – no entity is allowed to “directly or indirectly” have an ownership stake greater than 5% in any medical marijuana enterprise.
While we appreciate the aptness of Gotham Green’s name and all the associations of cutthroat fictional businessmen like Lex Luthor, who run the comic-book version of Gotham, Weisser is entirely correct in pointing out the blatant illegality of the conglomerate’s bid for power.
There are two sets of laws at play here. One for the minor market participant and another which seems to run according to who’s palms are being greased in the corridors of regulatory power.
iAnthus holdings are based in New York. Although it’s a relatively small investment company with a market capitalization of $12 million and only 18 dispensaries in Florida, Weisser’s disgust at the state regulators’ asinine behavior is the least surprising part of all of this.
The fact that regulators are trying to – as Weisser points out – “sweep this under the table” is why it’s necessary to keep pushing back against a corrupt system that doesn’t have law-abiding MMJ businesses’ interests at heart.
The Likely Consequences
While we have faith that this case will be resolved in favor of the plaintif, the entire situation reeks of a much larger problem taking root beyond the state level. The global nature of this bid for control over two licenses and that a small individual investor had to point out its absurdity shows that state regulatory bodies aren’t in it for legal interests.
Grass-roots marijuana entrepreneurs will have to actively keep a hand on the pulse of the industry if they don’t want to be flushed out by massive conglomerates in the future. Fortunately, we’re not going to allow that to happen. You can count on Beard Bro’s Pharma to keep you up to date on the latest underhanded schemes of government legislatures, Feds, and large-scale corporations like Gotham Green Partners.
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