A man who purchased a cannabis manufacturing permit in Baldwin Park now alleges corrupt city officials helped the seller, a shell company with ties to a former city attorney, flip the permit for more than $150,000 in profit in a scheme that left the new owner saddled with debt.
Business owner David Ju entered into an agreement to buy the cannabis development agreement previously awarded by the City Council to a company identified as Tier One Consulting in late 2018, though at the time a city ordinance barred any transfers of ownership interests by permit holders, according to David Torres-Siegrist, Ju’s attorney.
Despite this, Torres-Siegrist alleges in a claim for damages that city officials, including then-City Attorney Robert Tafoya, approved an amendment to the development agreement in April 2019 that replaced the former owners with Ju in an apparent violation of the city’s own laws. The amendment, signed by then Mayor Manny Lozano and Tafoya, was never brought to the council for approval, according to Torres-Siegrist’s newly filed claim against Baldwin Park.
“Ultimately, Mr. Ju would come to find that he actually purchased nothing but an endless cycle of debt collusively ‘negotiated’ between a current city attorney and a soon-to-be city attorney which was set up for failure from the get go,” Torres-Siegrist wrote in the claim.
The claim, typically a precursor to a lawsuit, states the damages are in excess of $25,000 and will be proven at trial.
Years…
