Replies to post #13644 on Trulieve Cannabis Corp (TCNNF)

[bgATL]

I am shocked by how much things that Burnette was not Charged With or Convicted Of keep being discussed. His biggest "crimes" are things that he was not ever convicted of............like the bribe to get the Hotel property protected from competition........keeps being mentioned but there is NO conviction. The law change put forward by the Nursery owners is old news, Burnette was not even around then. That wheelers and dealers try to get laws shaped in their benefit.......please, tell me that does not happen! It couldnt be true, could it?

They keep shaping it that way because what he was convicted of was telling the undercover agents to pay someone else - a consulting firm - to accomplish their goals. He was not in any way connected to the money. The charges are so contrived and the reporting from Tallahassee is so slanted it is just ridiculous. I have to suppose that the reporting is such as the ultimate goal is to connect Trulieve to Burnette. Hardball being played by the competition.

[FUNMAN]

In sentencing, prosecutors claimed Burnette, Beshears manipulated Florida medical marijuana law

By: Jeffrey Schweers
CAPITAL BUREAU | USA TODAY NETWORK-Florida

We all know this stinks like rotten eggs. I was wishing he would go to jail for the maximum limit. See RED and blue highlights below.

I am amazed that there isn't a peep coming out from the aggrieved? Very strange they aren't going after some deep pockets? - FUNMAN

https://www.tallahassee.com/story/news/local/state/2021/11/11/j-t-burnette-florida-medical-marijuana-law-trulieve-unfair-advantage/6288906001/

Federal prosecutors argued that Tallahassee developer John "J.T." Burnette deserved a stiffer sentence, in part because he admitted to conspiring with childhood friend and former state Rep. Halsey Beshears "to keep out competitors" in the nascent medical marijuana industry.

Burnette, convicted in August on extortion and other charges, was sentenced to three years in federal prison Tuesday. His attorneys have vowed to appeal.

Prosecutors had asked for up to eight years, saying the once prominent businessman used his “power and wealth to corrupt the political process.”

Burnette sentenced:

J.T. Burnette gets 3 years in federal prison, $1.25M fine in City Hall public corruption case

Such influence includes Burnette’s “leveraging of his personal relationships with state legislators and undisclosed conflicts of interest to gain unfair advantage in the medical marijuana business,” prosecutors said.

Burnette is married to Kim Rivers, who is the CEO of Trulieve, the multimillion-dollar medical marijuana company.

"The Trulieve Board of Directors understands today is a deeply personal and private moment for our CEO Kim Rivers," the board said in a prepared statement about the sentencing of her spouse. "Our thoughts are with her at this time. She has done and is doing an outstanding job leading Trulieve and she continues to have our full support."

A spokesman for the company, Steve Vancore, has consistently maintained that Burnette "had no formal involvement or participation in the formation of Trulieve, Inc." and has never spoken or acted on behalf of Trulieve.


A 'barrier to entry' or bragging?

Burnette was convicted for his participation in a long-running bribery scheme involving former Mayor and City Commissioner Scott Maddox and his business and romantic partner, Paige Carter-Smith. Maddox and Carter-Smith pleaded guilty and in return promised to cooperate with prosecutors against Burnette.

Prosecutors presented reams of evidence from phone calls, text messages and taped meetings with undercover agents bragging about his business dealings.

Among those taped conversations was one where Burnette boasted to an undercover agent how he worked with Beshears, a Republican state legislator at the time, to “insert a barrier to entry into the legislation that would benefit both Burnette and the Beshears family.”

On the witness stand, however, Burnette walked back his comments from five years ago about Beshears, a childhood friend from Monticello, and said he gave a false impression to agents because he thought it was what they wanted to hear.

Back story:

Burnette told FBI agents he helped Florida lawmaker box out competition in medical marijuana law

“The reality is I was kind of bragging about something that happened before my time,” Burnette said.

Vancore noted earlier that Burnette conceded at trial that his taped statement was not true, and that the undercover agents were egging Burnette on to expand his role.

Beshears was appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis in January 2019 to run the Department of Business and Professional Regulation but stepped down two years later due to undisclosed health problems.

Beshears has repeatedly claimed he had nothing to do with the amendment inserting the 30-year rule. Beshears — who has not been accused of any crime — declined to comment for this story.

Beshears in the headlines:

Report: Former DBPR head Halsey Beshears was on Matt Gaetz party plane to Bahamas

Rep. Halsey Beshears, R-Monticello, listens to a constituent's remarks at a Leon delegation meeting. He'll join Sen. Bill Montford, and Reps. Loranne Ausley and Ramon Alexander for this year's meeting, Monday at the courthouse

That barrier was an amendment requiring applicants to have been in business for 30 years prior to applying for a medical marijuana license.

The Beshears family owns Simpson Nurseries in Jefferson County, which joined up with Hackney Nurseries in Quincy and May Nursery in Havana that successfully applied for one of the state’s first medical licenses. That consortium became Trulieve, and Halsey Beshears’s brother Thad Beshears sits on its board of directors.

Peter Nothstein, deputy director of the Department of Justice’s Public Integrity Unit, noted during Burnette’s Tuesday sentencing the “blasé” way he talked to undercover FBI agents about legislation that would end up benefiting his spouse’s company.

“He explained it,” Nothstein said. “I just want to create a barrier to entry, which he was able to do because of his access to power.”

Federal prosecutor Peter Nothstein in the courtroom on Wednesday. He presented the final examination on Tuesday, Aug. 10, 2021.

Vancore stood by his prior statements, adding that Trulieve was never a part of the case.

"The sentencing does not involve Trulieve, nor does the underlying case involve Trulieve or any of its employees. Since this matter is not about the company, we have nothing further to say," he said.

In an earlier court filing, prosecutors mistakenly said that Burnette had a $400 million stake in Trulieve.

It was an error Burnette's lawyers were quick to point out.

“As Burnette's financial disclosure to the Probation Office makes clear, Burnette does not own $400 million in Trulieve shares,” his lawyers said in a response filed Thursday.

By the time they got to court for Burnette's sentencing Tuesday, the error had been corrected, as U.S. Judge Robert Hinkle noted in court.

“They got that straightened out,” Hinkle said.

Burnette, whose net worth is $112 million, is a 10% owner of Burnette Construction, which according to Trulieve's Securities and Exchange Commission filings, has built its cultivation and processing facilities, and "provides labor, materials and equipment on a cost-plus basis."

Tallahassee Democrat reporter Jeff Burlew contributed to this report.

[FUNMAN]

Key Georgia legislator wants to reexamine medical marijuana bids

More that smells like rotten eggs. Why should any of the material be redacted? - FUNMAN

By Dale Russell
Published November 10, 2021 10:49
PMI-TeamFOX 5 Atlanta

https://www.fox5atlanta.com/news/medical-marijuana-legislature

Georgia legislator wants to reexamine medical marijuana bids
The Georgia Medical Cannabis Commission recently selected six companies to produce medical marijuana. But following a FOX 5 I-Team investigation, lawsuits, bid protests, and heavy criticism of the bid process legislators demanded answers from the commission.

ATLANTA - State legislators have vowed to turn the medical marijuana bid process upside down, possibly rewriting the law and reopening the bid process.

The Georgia Medical Cannabis Commission recently selected six companies to produce medical marijuana.

But following a FOX 5 I-Team investigation, lawsuits, bid protests, and heavy criticism of the bid process legislators demanded answers from the commission.

"Do we need to step in and change the parts that are so arbitrary that’s creating this meltdown to getting this thing done?" said State Representative Alan Powell.

A frustrated oversight committee at the State Capitol, lashed out at the Medical Marijuana Commission executive director about the secrecy, the bid scoring, and the slow rollout of medicine.

"I want to get people help today, not next month," said State Representative Rick Williams.

The Regulated Industries Committee meeting followed an I-Team investigation of the winning bidders, the filing of 21 bid protests, and heavy lobbying by losing bidders.

Florida company Trulieve was one of the winning bidders.

The company's CEO Kim Rivers is married to a man recently convicted of public corruption charges in Florida.

JT Burnette bragged on undercover tapes about how he and a Florida legislator made "little tweaks that give you some advantage" to the marijuana legislation in Florida.

Truleive said JT Burnette had no role with Truelieve Ga.

Then there was Jigar Patel of Nature's GA, also a winning bidder. Patel was once a business associate with a man in Massachusetts who admitted in court to bribing a local Massachusetts Mayor to win his medical marijuana license.

Nature's GA wrote to say it was irrelevant "because the company separated ties with that individual long before our Georgia application was submitted."

And, finally, we found Michael Mayes at a Georgia Access to Medical Cannabis Commission. He offered advice to the commission, sent in license application instructions, and volunteered to be a consultant for free. He promised he wouldn't bid.

The commission never hired him as a consultant. Michael Mayes ended up as one of the winning bidders.

Critics, like losing bidder Georgia Atlas attorney Jerome Lee saw a possible conflict.

"Wow. I was not aware of that. It looks real bad when you don't put that out front," said Lee.

The Regulated Industries Committee expressed concern to the Medial Cannabis Executive Director, Andrew Turnage. Their main complaint: the heavily redacted bids shown in our recent investigation.

It is right here for anyone to see. Page after blacked out page of redacted material. Some bids are virtually 100% redacted.

Cannabis Commission Executive Director Andrew Turnage explained the commission was following the law as it was written by legislators, and he couldn't tell them who scored the bids, or how they reached those scores because - by law - it is confidential.

"I take it for granted that the ones who did the judging were the commissioners. (They were) And I would have loved if they had brought in a third party consultant. (They didn't) Well, a mistake," said Rep. Powell.

The Commissioners, who picked the winning bidders and who knew who was running each company, are all political appointees, selected by either the Governor, Lt. Governor, or Speaker of the House.

The companies that bid were chock full of politically connected players like former Georgia Congressman Tom Price who was on the board of directors of one of the winning bids.

During the bid process, one winning applicant Trulieve announced a financial partnership with the Morehouse School of Medicine to study medical marijuana, according to a Trulieve press release.

Cannabis Commission Chairman Dr. Christopher Edwards is a graduate of Morehouse School of Medicine.

Representative Micah Gravely co-wrote the medical marijuana bills.

(Anything you can do?) "We can continue to push. We can continue to start asking questions. Obviously we can start asking the right questions of when is oil going to be ready for the people of this state," said Rep. Gravley.

Committee Chairman Alan Powell said after all the complaints and all the unanswered questions, it's time to reexamine the bids and the law.

"Maybe what we need to do is pass some changes, you ain't got to start from scratch, but you can certainly change the whole structure of how they do it. Set aside all this bid business and open it back up. (Start all over?) Start all over," said Powell.

He has told the committee he wants another hearing and more information before the end of the year.

[Dmarty]

Yes, lawsuits are coming against TCNNF frm competitors…Sp will fall …..excellent buying the dip!