A federal grand jury has indicted the chief executive of a controversial Oregon-based cannabis multistate operator connected to a top state official on tax fraud charges, officials said.
Rosa Casares, the CEO of La Mota, which operates 45 cannabis stores in the two states, allegedly failed to pay more than $1.5 million in federal payroll taxes over a nearly two-year span from March 2020 to December 2021, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Oregon said in a press release Thursday.
Casares, who ran the finances of both La Mota and a payroll processing company called 503 Staffing, allegedly failed to collect or pay federal income and payroll taxes, Justice Department officials said.
It’s at least the second instance of alleged failure to pay taxes for La Mota, which is not mentioned in the indictment, according to Portland-based KGW.
What happened to Oregon cannabis company La Mota?
As Willamette Week reported, both the Internal Revenue Service and the Oregon Department of Revenue have filed liens against Casares and her La Mota cofounder, Aaron Mitchell, alleging several million dollars’ worth of unpaid taxes stretching back to 2016.
The couple were also accused of failing to pay cannabis industry vendors, the newspaper reported.
Tax issues and unpaid invoices are common woes in the cannabis industry, though many operators hope that April’s reclassification of medical cannabis as a Schedule 3 drug will lead to limited relief from Internal Revenue Service Code 280E.
Mitchell is not mentioned in Thursday’s indictment.
However, Casares’ indictment is “one of several major fraud cases” being prosecuted by federal officials in Oregon, according to the Justice Department.
Is Oregon cannabis company La Mota connected to tax fraud?
La Mota was at the center of a previous imbroglio involving Shemia Fagan, who resigned from her post as Oregon secretary of state in May 2023 after questions were raised around a side job she took with a La Mota affiliate company a few months prior.
As secretary of state, Fagan was responsible for the state Liquor and Cannabis Commission, which regulates the state’s $925 million annual cannabis industry.
La Mota officials were not accused of any wrongdoing in the Fagan affair.
Federal officials investigated Fagan but did not file charges.
Casares’ indictment alleges eight charges, for each of the quarterly payments she allegedly failed to remit to the IRS. If convicted, she faces a maximum penalty of five years’ imprisonment per charge.
Federal law enforcement have sniffed around legal cannabis industry operators before, particularly in situations where local elected officials have the power to dole out limited business permits.
