Debra Borchardt
Green Market Report reported news last week that Trump associates who had been arrested for campaign finance violations had applied for marijuana licenses in Nevada. It also seems one of the gentlemen tried to pursue licenses in California as well.
The San Francisco Chronicle reported that Andrey Kukushkin had attempting to build a cannabis business in the Bay Area. The paper said that Kukushkin had some control in a variety of cannabis companies named Oasis Venture, Legacy Botanical Co., and Venture Rebel Inc. It was reported that Kukushin first entered the space in 2015 as his Rebel Venture Inc. company was contracted by the medical marijuana dispensary MediThrive to manage its Mission Street location.
This information came about as Kukushkin sued his partners in 2018 claiming they cost him $1 million by running the company into the ground. Venture claims it gave MediThrive a million dollars to renovate a storefront and purchase inventory. The case alleges that the inventory got diverted to another business and the investment was squandered.
It looks as if this case is continuing as the latest filing is dated 9/3/2019. Cannabis law firm Greenspoon Marder seems to be representing Kukushkin in this case and Green Market Report is in the process of confirming whether this is still the case.
More recently, his Oasis Venture company planned to turn a large ranch in Livermore into a cannabis farm. It seems the neighbors weren’t so keen on the idea. Oasis Venture originally applied for a cultivation permit in 2017 but was denied. The paper reported that a business partner by the name of Chuk Campos wrote a letter to the Alameda County saying Oasis was going to use the cannabis to advance cancer research. The article says Campos is now distancing himself from Kukushkin.
According to CannaBiz Media, Andrey Kukushkin appeared on 11 cultivation and manufacturing licenses in California relating to Trava Group LLC., which wasn’t mentioned in the Chronicle story. Trava Group is based in California. CannaBiz said that the licenses appear to have expired, yet a story in the Mojave Desert News says a license was awarded to Trava Group for delivery only.
The Sacramento Bee is reporting that the FBI is investigating whether cannabis business people have tried to bribe California politicians. The Bee is suggesting that it could be Kukushkin that is being investigated, which is a logical conclusion since the group also tried to bribe politicians in Nevada in order to get licenses approved.
The Sacramento Business Journal reported that “Kukushkin’s business dealings extend to Sacramento’s legal cannabis industry, where he is a business partner of Garib Karapetyan, the CEO of Capitol Compliance Management, which is the group behind nearly one-third of Sacramento’s cannabis dispensaries.”
The Kolas dispensary brand is owned by Capitol Compliance and is up to nine of the 30 dispensaries licensed by the city of Sacramento. “Karapetyan has permits for eight dispensaries in Sacramento, according to The Sacramento Bee, making him the single largest permit holder for dispensaries in the city.”
The Bee had this statement: “If this story is true, then our cannabis licensing process, which was designed to protect consumers and reward local law-abiding businesses, is being improperly exploited,” said the mayor’s spokeswoman, Mary Lynne Vellinga, in a statement provided to the Business Journal. “The mayor is calling for an immediate investigation and will lead an effort to add additional safeguards to licensing process.”
