PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - A part-owner and operator of medical marijuana dispensaries in Oregon has been sentenced to seven months in prison, marking what a prosecutor called the county's first federal sentencing of a legal pot business owner for tax crimes.
The Oregonian/OregonLive reports Matthew Price was sentenced in federal court in Portland on Monday to seven years in prison and was ordered to pay $262,776 to the Internal Revenue Service.
Price pleaded guilty to four counts of willfully failing to file income tax returns in connection with Cannabliss stores.
Price admitted that he didn't file individual tax returns from 2011 through 2014 for income received from the operation of the dispensaries.
"Matthew Price attempted to live a double life—advising OLCC officials on how to regulate state-legal marijuana sales, while privately evading his personal and business tax obligations," said Billy J. Williams, U.S. Attorney for the District of Oregon. "Marijuana businesses and business owners are subject to the same federal tax laws as every other business and will be scrutinized for criminal wrongdoing. Tax cheaters will not be tolerated in any industry."
An investigation into Price started after the IRS discovered he hadn't paid employment taxes for his employees.
Price failed to report nearly $1 million of income and disregarded advice from three different certified public accountants who warned him not to use his business money to pay personal expenses, Assistant U.S. Attorney Seth Uram said. Price did anyway, spending $67,000 in cash on a sports car, $15,000 in cash on a Rolex watch, and other income on vacations, homes and season tickets to the Portland Trailblazers, Uram said.
Price's defense lawyer, Whitney Boise, had urged probation for Price, saying he has no prior criminal record, has accepted responsibility, has nearly paid off the restitution and already has suffered. Price wasn't sure what could or couldn't be deducted from his taxable income, was unorganized and wasn't comfortable with the advice he received from his accountants, Boise said.
U.S. District Judge Michael W. Mosman said he didn't fully accept the defense's explanation that Price didn't comprehend his tax obligations.
"It's true you didn't walk into this with an MBA," Mosman said. But it's also clear Price has the intelligence to understand "one of the most basic obligations of running a business," the judge said.
Price, who apologized in court, must turn himself in on Nov. 1.
Whether he'll be able to continue in his marijuana business until then, or after prison, will be decided at a hearing Friday. The matter arises because use or sale of marijuana remains prohibited under federal law and is a standard prohibition during federal supervision.
There was a tax-related prosecution 12 years ago in Detroit of a "back-door'''-type marijuana dispensary, but not a legal business such as the one Price ran, Uram said.