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A lot has changed for cannabis moguls Rosa Cazares and Aaron Mitchell since March.
Their business relationship with Secretary of State Shemia Fagan led to her resignation, and is now the subject of three separate investigations—including a federal criminal probe. Their cozy relationship with top Democrats has disintegrated. They’ve been largely exiled from the cannabis industry they championed. They’ve moved to separate apartment buildings, a far cry from the mansion they rented together in the Northwest hills where they threw lavish political fundraisers. The couple’s nanny was indicted on criminal charges after driving Mitchell’s car last October in a high-speed police chase. They’ve been sued by a neighboring business and a landlord.
And as things have slowly fallen apart for the two, they’ve done two things that seem at odds.
First, they continue to accumulate tax liens. Three new liens filed in the past month and a half by the Internal Revenue Service and the Oregon Department of Revenue total more than $4.2 million.
Second, they continue to expand into New Mexico. The two now hold seven cannabis licenses in that state—including for a giant warehouse that used to contain a furniture outlet store.
Here’s an update on the two’s persistent financial woes and simultaneous business expansion.
NEW TAX LIENS
As WW has previously reported, the feds and the state have issued more than $7 million in tax liens in recent years against Cazares, Mitchell and the companies they control.
In the past two months, three additional tax liens filed by the feds and the state add up to more than $4.2 million.
That’s significant because it shows that Cazares and Mitchell still aren’t paying much of their taxes, six months after WW first reported on the problem.
On Aug. 10, the IRS issued a $4 million lien against Mitchell. A breakdown of the lien: $1.8 million is for personal income tax for 2020, just over $1 million is for personal income tax in 2021, and the remaining amount is withholding taxes from 2020 and 2021 that were supposed to be transmitted to the feds from employees’ paychecks for things like Social Security and Medicaid.
Another federal lien issued to 503 Staffing LLC, one of Mitchell’s companies, on July 3 is for $46,670 from tax year 2022.
A lien issued by Oregon’s Department of Revenue on Aug. 3 to Mitchell and Cazares lists $201,308 in unpaid withholding and payroll taxes, among others.
NEW MEXICO EXPANSION
More than 20 of La Mota’s Oregon dispensaries are still operational. (At least two have shut down since WW’s March 29 cover story.)
La Mota now has seven licensed cannabis locations in New Mexico, according to the state’s cannabis database. Mitchell, according to public records, owns four of the seven properties. It appears only two of them are operational, however, according to monthly sales data published by the state.
Sales reflected on that database would suggest La Mota’s rollout in the Land of Enchantment has been rocky.
La Mota’s dispensary in Clovis, an all-black structure tucked between industrial buildings, sold only $3,160 in product in July, according to the database. Another location in Albuquerque sold $12,112 in July.
But just last week La Mota got a cannabis manufacturing license approved by the state. Its address is listed as the site of a giant former furniture store in Albuquerque.
Cazares and Mitchell did not respond to a request for comment.