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Investing in the cannabis industry is not without its risks, given the evolving regulatory landscape and the varying state and federal statuses of the product itself. The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has...more
The evolving regulatory landscape for marijuana-related businesses poses unique compliance challenges for firms in the securities industry. The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) continues to enforce its 2014...more
Despite the proliferation of state laws that legalize the cultivation and sale of marijuana, federal law has remained an obstacle to access to the U.S. financial system for marijuana sellers and producers. With penalties...more
One of the largest headwinds facing the cannabis industry is the lack of access to banking services. Many financial institutions refuse to serve the multibillion-dollar cannabis industry given the regulatory uncertainty...more
Live Life Federal Credit Union, a $69 million-asset credit union based in Fraser, Michigan, recently consented to a cease-and-desist order issued by the National Credit Union Administration Board (NCUA). The enforcement...more
On December 3, 2019, the federal bank regulatory agencies[1] and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), in consultation with the Conference of State Bank Supervisors, issued a joint guidance (2019 Hemp Guidance)...more
In November 2018, Missouri voters passed Amendment 2, setting in motion state regulated medical marijuana. Over the last month, the Missouri Department of Health & Senior Services (DHSS) began approving license applications...more
Federal bank regulators no longer require banks to submit suspicious activity reports (SARs) for legally authorized hemp business transactions, absent another required circumstance....more
On December 3, 2019, four federal agencies – the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (“FDIC”), the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”), and the Office of the...more
Since the effective date of the 2018 Farm Bill, banking and the inability to acquire financing have been major impediments for the hemp industry. While demand for hemp continues to grow, banking regulations have still been...more
Banks, credit unions and insurance companies would be protected in doing business with a wide variety of businesses including marijuana sellers if the “SAFE Act,” passed by the U.S. House of Representatives on September 26,...more
We regularly blog about the conflict between state and federal law related to cannabis and the uncertainty regarding how federal criminal and Bank Secrecy Act (“BSA”) law will, or will not, be enforced against financial...more
Marijuana is estimated to be a $10 billion industry and rapidly growing. Almost all of it is conducted in cash. Although legal in thirty three states plus Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and Guam, marijuana remains illegal at...more
ON OCTOBER 2, 2012, kidnappers robbed and abducted a marijuana dispensary owner from his Newport Beach home. They then drove him to the Mojave Desert where they tortured him and demanded that he reveal where he had buried his...more
Since 1996, when California became the first state to legalize marijuana (at the time, for medicinal purposes only), 28 additional states and the District of Columbia have legalized marijuana to some extent. Public support...more
Attorney General Sessions Announces Rescission of Obama Administration Policies on Marijuana Enforcement; Financial Institutions Lose Grounds to Permit Financial Transactions with Marijuana Businesses....more