Another Oklahoma attorney is facing charges after allegedly helping set up an illegal marijuana business.The state said this is only the tip of the iceberg in their investigation. The document details the illegal activity, claiming attorney Matthew Stacy registered for more than 300 limited liability companies to get medical marijuana and manufacturing licenses.”We’re just scratching the surface,” said Mark Woodward with the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics.A multicounty grand jury indicted Stacy, a local attorney, for allegedly obtaining licenses for marijuana farms illegally.”These lawyers, these consultants, will recruit people to come to Oklahoma, and they will tell these people I will get you a 75% owner,” Woodward said.Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics said Oklahoma residents were recruited to become ghost owners, signing paperwork to own the farms but having no day-to-day operations. Instead, out-of-state clients will operate the farms, something OBN said contributes to the black market.”Meanwhile, the criminal organization is bringing their 25% work crew in. They’re the ones moving the plants, moving the money and the workers and the 75% owner in many cases knows nothing about the farm,” Woodward said.The affidavit said, “on many occasions,” Stacy told officials the grows weren’t operating, but officials found “thousands of marijuana plants actively growing with sometimes dozens to hundreds of pounds of fully processed and/or packaged marijuana located on the premises.””To know that these criminal organizations shouldn’t have even been here had it not been for a law firm that had stepped up and submitted fraudulent paperwork so they could obtain a license for these criminal groups to move here and cause all this destruction and now we’re having to clean it up,” Woodward said.
Another Oklahoma attorney is facing charges after allegedly helping set up an illegal marijuana business.
The state said this is only the tip of the iceberg in their investigation. The document details the illegal activity, claiming attorney Matthew Stacy registered for more than 300 limited liability companies to get medical marijuana and manufacturing licenses.
“We’re just scratching the surface,” said Mark Woodward with the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics.
A multicounty grand jury indicted Stacy, a local attorney, for allegedly obtaining licenses for marijuana farms illegally.
“These lawyers, these consultants, will recruit people to come to Oklahoma, and they will tell these people I will get you a 75% owner,” Woodward said.
Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics said Oklahoma residents were recruited to become ghost owners, signing paperwork to own the farms but having no day-to-day operations. Instead, out-of-state clients will operate the farms, something OBN said contributes to the black market.
“Meanwhile, the criminal organization is bringing their 25% work crew in. They’re the ones moving the plants, moving the money and the workers and the 75% owner in many cases knows nothing about the farm,” Woodward said.
The affidavit said, “on many occasions,” Stacy told officials the grows weren’t operating, but officials found “thousands of marijuana plants actively growing with sometimes dozens to hundreds of pounds of fully processed and/or packaged marijuana located on the premises.”
“To know that these criminal organizations shouldn’t have even been here had it not been for a law firm that had stepped up and submitted fraudulent paperwork so they could obtain a license for these criminal groups to move here and cause all this destruction and now we’re having to clean it up,” Woodward said.
