Cannabis Compliance Board Lifts Moratorium, Levies $1.25M Fine In First Meeting

By Dana Gentry, The Nevada Current

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July 22, 2020

Nevada’s Cannabis Compliance Board released the moratorium on license transfers imposed in October by Gov. Steve Sisolak after Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, associates of Rudy Giuliani, allegedly attempted to buy their way into the state’s industry via campaign contributions.

The two contributed to then-gubernatorial candidate Adam Laxalt, a Republican who lost to Sisolak, and to Wes Duncan, a Republican who lost his bid for Attorney General.

CCB Executive Director Tyler Klimas did not immediately respond to inquiries about what came of the governor’s moratorium and whether an investigation revealed any irregularities.

Klimas said the board could act on as many as 20 percent of backlogged license transfer requests at its August 25 meeting.

The CCB also voted to approve a disciplinary settlement with CW Nevada, LLC, which is in bankruptcy. The company, which failed to pay sales taxes, sold unapproved products, and was growing untagged plants, according to regulators, agreed to pay a civil penalty of $1.25 million, pay back taxes of $1.5 million, relinquish six licenses and sell eight others.

A court-appointed bankruptcy receiver said creditor claims against CW Nevada totaled more than $206 million. The receiver allowed $31.5 million in claims to proceed, including more than $1 million owed to employees.

CCB member Dennis Neilander abstained from voting on the CW Nevada, LLC settlement.

As the Current reported in February, Neilander, the former chairman of the Nevada Gaming Control Board, is of counsel to Kaempfer Crowell, a law firm that has represented CW Nevada. Neilander noted he has no pecuniary interest in the firm.

His colleague at Kaempfer Crowell, Jennifer Lazovich, is also a licensed owner of CW Nevada, LLC. Neilander did not mention that potential conflict.

Assembly Bill 533, passed by the 2019 Nevada Legislature, prohibits a member of the CCB from being “pecuniarily interested in any business or organization holding a license under this title or doing business with any person or organization holding a license or registration card under this title.”

“Being this is our first meeting, I want this thing to be clean,” Neilander said. “Out of an abundance of caution, I’m going to go ahead and abstain.”

This story was originally published by the Nevada Current. For more stories from the Nevada Current, visit NevadaCurrent.com.