Today’s indictment of Rudy Giuliani’s two business partners is a disgusting tale of illegality and greed—and it’s worth wondering if it involves any effort to infiltrate Massachusetts’ marijuana licensing program.
I’ll tread lightly here. There is no allegation in the Indictment that Massachusetts is involved. In all likelihood there is none. But state regulators should be wondering about paragraph 22 of the Indictment. After laying out connections between Giuliani’s friends and illegal dark money from an unnamed Russian national identified as Foreign National-1, paragraph 22 states that the defendants “planned to use Foreign National-1 as a source of funding for donations and contributions to State and federal candidates and politicians in Nevada, New York, and other States to facilitate acquisitions of retail marijuana licenses.” (underlining mine). One of the defendants drew up a plan to donate between $1-2 million to politicians’ SuperPACs in a “multi-state license strategy.”
Eleven states have legalized marijuana for commercial sale. Massachusetts is one of them.
Again, there is no indication in the Indictment that Massachusetts is involved. Only New York and Nevada are named, and details are offered only regarding the Nevada scheme. But we also know that the multi-state strategy involved “other States.”
We’ve already had some indication of a dark money marijuana licensing scheme in Massachusetts. In a story on December 26, 2018 the Boston Globe’s Stephanie Ebbert wrote of licensing applications being sought by a dark money operative in Eugene McCain Wanted to Open a Slots Parlor in Revere. Now It’s Pot Shops in Western Mass. I followed up revealing extensive funding from foreign accounts in both the Revere slots case and a Maine casino licensing ballot initiative where McCain’s funders were hit with record fines for their dark money sleaze. Read it here at Can Eugene McCain, Dark Money Slots Parlor Impresario Turned Weed Dealer, Snooker Small Town Rubes? That money was from overseas sources.
For the third time, there is as yet no suggestion that Massachusetts is one of the “other States.” But it’s a question worth asking.