[ad_1]
All but one of the Canadian-based marijuana growers have all denied MarketWatch that they have done business with organized crime people or cashed in their investments after a bomb report denouncing the name of the crime.
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), the government-sponsored television channel, released a report last Thursday that some of the major licensed marijuana growers had "long-standing ties," including commercial relationships with members of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. the crowd. Beyond links to a powerful criminal family in Montreal, Quebec, the report also indicates that one of the major licensed producers has acquired a business related to a drug dealer. According to the report, this agreement included stocks and rented premises for a pot culture facility.
Eliminating the link between the crowd and organized crime in the cannabis trade was one of the arguments put forward by government officials for the legalization of recreation, which came into effect on October 17 in Canada.
"A very large proportion of adults in Canada chose to break the law, and the criminal enterprise controlled 100% of the production distribution market and made billions," said Blair. Canada's Minister of Border Security and Organized Crime Prevention. said in an interview with MarketWatch last month in Ottawa.
A guide to jar stocks: What you need to know to invest in cannabis companies
Canadians with criminal records are prohibited from obtaining the licenses required by the federal government to cultivate grass, and although the government has suspended licenses in the past, it has done so. because of crowd links since 2013.
"Health Canada has seen no evidence that organized crime has infiltrated one of the more than 130 federally registered producers," said Eric Morrissette, spokesperson for Health Canada. government agency responsible for issuing licenses to weed control companies.
According to author and Canadian-based organized crime expert James Dubro, the black market for weeds remains healthy in Canada, largely fueled by organized crime groups run by bikers and ethnic gangs. traditionally sell illicit cigarettes. He said there was little reason to risk the level of scrutiny that comes with doing business with a public company at this point, but that would not stop a mafia from investing profits laundered by intermediary of parents.
See also: All Potential Red Flags for Investors in IGC, Pot Inventory Rising 1,000% in Three Months
"The mafia itself is not going to be heavy with things," Dubro said. "These are the bikers, they go to bars, strip clubs and, of course, to marijuana shops. They are everywhere in Toronto and Montreal – in the harbor there and God knows what else. "
The article by Radio-Canada does not name the people or companies involved in the crowd, so MarketWatch has asked the largest public producers of public pot, by market capitalization, to deny any mafia relationship. These companies were Canopy Growth Corp.
GSC -0.70%
, Tilray Inc.
TLRY, -1.80%
, Aurora Cannabis Inc.
CBA + 2.82%
, Cronos Group Inc.
CRON, + 3.05%
, Aphria Inc.
US: APHQF
,
APH + 0.00%
CannTrust Holdings Inc.
CNTTF, + 0.51%
TRST, + 0.67%
and Hexo Corp.
hexo, + 1.95%
HYYDF, + 1.82%
Here's what they said
Aphria Spokeswoman Tamara Macgregor said the company had no connection with organized crime or drug traffickers.
Aurora Cannabis has not responded to several requests for comments.
CannTrust President Eric Paul denied that the company had ties to the crowd, claiming he and a partner had founded the company and were only taking money from friends, family members and family members. 39, institutional investors. CannTrust has also made no acquisitions other than investments in the greenhouse effect, he said. "I have been here since the first day and we are the money behind things," he said on the phone. "We have no connection with anything like that, we are perfectly clean."
Cover growth Spokesperson Caitlin O'Hara wrote in an e-mail: "We are publicly traded because we value transparency, our company is managed with integrity by a carefully selected group of people. Any suggestion or insinuation would be unfounded and imprudent. "
Cronos Group Spokesperson Anna Shlimak wrote "No" to each of the MarketWatch questions on crowd-related investors, commercial relations with mafia-related people, and the acquisition of a drug traffickers organization.
Hexo In a news release, the company does not control who buys its shares – the responsibility for controlling retail investors rests with investment advisers, who are regulated by provincial authorities. "We also do not know about links to organized crime and would not be dealing with any of our knowledge," said Isabelle Robillard, director of communications at Hexo. Robillard also stated that, in order to obtain his contract with the pot retailer from the Quebec government, the company had received authorization from the provincial regulatory authorities, which included an investigation by the anti-corruption and economic crime division of Quebec.
Tilray Spokesperson Zack Hutson wrote in an email in response to questions about crowd links: "Absolutely not".
How Canada Checks Crowd Links
Under the Cannabis Act in Canada, licensed producers are subject to criminal background checks conducted by Health Canada. Health Canada does not conduct a background check itself, relying on the Royal Canadian Mounted Police or the RCMP – a Canadian police organization similar to the US Federal Bureau of Investigation – that consults various sources of information. and databases at its disposal. The results are submitted to Health Canada, which makes the final decision on a license.
Read: Cannabis is now legal in Canada, but marijuana companies are waiting for a difficult start
Major investors in cannabis-producing companies are also subject to the same security clearances as executives and other members, such as board members whose names appear on license applications. "Health Canada has the authority to identify other positions or people within an organization that require security clearance," Morrissette wrote in an e-mail.
The RCMP checks investors, but in some cases, such as those involving front companies and accounts abroad, proves more difficult – a problem that occurred when the bill legalizing cannabis was passed. . Whatever the challenges, any connection with the crowd that the RCMP can discover is enough to kill a license.
"Any connection with organized crime automatically results in the rejection of the application," wrote Morrissette of Health Canada.
Weed stocks were trading until noon Friday. Horizons Marijuana Life Sciences ETF
HMMJ, + 0.85%
up 2%, and ETFMG Alternative Harvest ETF
MJ + 0.82%
gained 0.9%. The S & P 500 index rose 0.3%
SPX, -0.71%
from Friday noon.
Source link
