No doubt about it, our county supervisor colluded with the cannabis mogul who admitted to bribing him to get favorable decisions from the board of supervisors. Collusion is a secret agreement between parties to commit actions to deceive or defraud.
The supervisor’s misconduct also met the definition of Embezzlement – Dishonest and illegal appropriation, use, or trafficking of the funds, goods, or office by an officeholder for personal enrichment.
The mayor and his vice mayor were recipients of Dark Money – Donations in the name of a company, ally, or employee not identifiable as the source in order to hide the source. A form of money laundering – it is sneaky, but it looks innocuous. One company, Public Policy Solutions gave a total of $1,035.70 of design and mailing services to the mayor in 2016. The company’s principle, Cory Black, was a cannabis permit applicant himself, and represented several of the other applicants for cannabis or dispensary permits, under multiple different names, none of them naming Public Policy Solutions on their applications.
Money Laundering is defined as moving money through multiple entities to conceal its identity, source, and destination.