Jacob Redmond
Well-Known Member
There is a doctor, a developer, an NBA legend, a fashion designer, a knight, an ex-boy-band member, a professional football player and two relatives of a U.S. president.
Despite their widely varied backgrounds, investors in the for-profit ResponsibleOhio marijuana-legalization plan have something in common: They all want to make money, and lots of it.
The 24 known investors bought into a plan establishing 10 exclusive commercial marijuana-growing sites across the state. The list of investors does not include those who bought shares from the original investors but whose names are not disclosed on U.S. Securities Exchange Commission forms.
If marijuana legalization is approved by voters in the Nov. 3 election, investors will spend hundreds of millions to build enclosed structures to grow pot for a business estimated by ResponsibleOhio to generate $1 billion a year, which would be taxed, with proceeds going primarily to local governments.
Curt Steiner, spokesman for Ohioans Against Marijuana Monopolies, criticized the investor group, saying, “It’s a shame that a small number of wealthy individuals are trying to get richer by cementing themselves into the Ohio Constitution.”
Here’s a closer look, by county growing site, at the people who are putting up at least $20 million to bankroll the marijuana-legalization constitutional amendment and why they say they are involved.
Franklin County
Rick Kirk is a Columbus developer, president and chief executive officer of Hallmark Campus Communities, which owns residential apartment complexes near Ohio State, Kent State and Ohio universities, among others.
He is funding the site on Seeds Road in Grove City, south of I-71 and north of Zuber Road.
“Projections show that the marijuana industry will bring a significant influx of much-needed revenue to our communities,” Kirk said at a ResponsibleOhio news conference earlier this year.
Kirk is one of two investors known to have sold shares of his investment to other people. He reported six investors in his company, each contributing $300,000, according to a July 30 filing with the SEC.
Licking County
Dr. Suresh Gupta is a Dayton anesthesiologist and pain-management physician who owns the growing site in Pataskala. He said he plans to devote 90 percent of his property to cultivating marijuana for medicinal purposes.
“We look forward to providing much-needed medical marijuana for people with debilitating diseases,” he said, adding that the marijuana could be used by cancer patients or those with Alzheimer’s disease, post-traumatic stress disorder and other ailments.
He is a 1980 graduate of a medical college in India and has been in medical practices in Ohio since 1993.
Gupta was charged with five counts of gross sexual imposition in 2008 but was found not guilty on all charges. He has been named in several civil malpractice suits but has not lost any cases or paid damages, ResponsibleOhio officials said.
Sir Alan Mooney, who has three decades in the investment business, added “Sir” to his name in 2007 when he was knighted by Pope Benedict XVI as a member of the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre, a ceremonial order of the Roman Catholic Church dating from the Crusades. He has a minister’s license in Ohio.
Mooney caused a stir when word spread about a YouTube video, now publicly inaccessible, in which he pitched marijuana investments to several potential partners. “Let’s hop on this tsunami of money and ride the top of that wave to some enrichment for us,” he said in the video.
Delaware County
Jennifer Doering is an investor in a 25-acre site on Rt. 42 abutting the Delaware city limits in Concord Township. She is general manager with the Chas. Seligman Distributing Co., a Walton, Ky., beer and wine distributor.
“Marijuana legalization will help drive economic growth in Ohio. We will be responsible employers and examples of why respecting workers’ rights is simply good business,” Doering said at a news conference.
Butler County
Nanette Lepore , a Youngstown native and New York fashion designer, is the younger sister of state Rep. Michele Lepore-Hagan, D-Youngstown. She is also the sister-in-law of former state Rep. Bob Hagan, D-Youngstown, who offered unsuccessful marijuana-legalization legislation proposals in previous legislative sessions.
“This is an incredible opportunity for places like my hometown of Youngstown to generate significant dollars for things like road and bridge repair, which in turn will create thousands of needed jobs,” Lepore said in a statement.
Barbara Gould, of the affluent Cincinnati suburb Indian Hill, is involved in NG Green Investments, which would own the Butler County farm. Gould, a widow, has been a supporter of the arts, including the Cincinnati Ballet, and a contributor to candidates of both major political parties.
Her late husband, Bill Motto, founder and former chairman of Meridian Bioscience, died of cancer last year.
“He could have benefited from access to medical marijuana,” she said.
Paul Heldman, a Cincinnati attorney and former general counsel for the Kroger Co., has said he decided to invest because his son developed epilepsy 10 years ago and could be helped by medical marijuana. He is a board member of CenterBank.
“Until we legalize marijuana in Ohio and throughout our country, rigorous scientific research into its applications will not be possible and thousands, perhaps millions, of people will suffer needlessly,” Heldman said in a statement.
Woody Taft and Dudley Taft Jr. are brothers and the great-great-grandnephews of President William Howard Taft and cousins of former Gov. Bob Taft. Woody Taft is a private equity investor, vice president of development at Taft Broadcasting Co. and trustee of the Louise Taft Semple Foundation, a philanthropic arts group.
“Our current laws are archaic and cruel to the people in Ohio who need medical marijuana,” he said in a statement released earlier this year.
Dudley Taft Jr., a blues guitarist and graduate of the Berklee College of Music, has several albums to his credit, including Left for Dead and Skin and Bone. He owns rocker Peter Frampton’s former home and studio in the Cincinnati area.
“It’s appalling that black Ohioans are four times more likely to be arrested for marijuana than white Ohioans, even though both groups use it equally,” Dudley Taft said in a statement. “It is irresponsible to allow such an unjust system to continue.”
Clermont County
Frank “Bo” Wood, an investor in the Clermont County farm, operating as DGF LLC, is chief executive officer of Secret Communications, a Cincinnati investment firm. He is the former general manager and president of WEBN-FM radio in Cincinnati, a magazine publisher, concert promoter and father of the city’s Labor Day fireworks celebration.
Wood has an economics degree from Harvard University and a law degree from the University of Chicago.
Hamilton County
Oscar Robertson is probably the most high-profile investor. The former All-American basketball player at the University of Cincinnati and pro basketball star is now chairman of Orchem, a Cincinnati-based special chemical-manufacturing company.
“It’s a terrible feeling when you can’t help someone suffering from cancer or another debilitating medical condition — I know from personal experience,”
Robertson said in a statement. “But medical marijuana can give our loved ones relief. I’m part of ResponsibleOhio because I want to be part of making this change a reality.”
William J. Foster is the owner of A-1 Quality Logistical Solutions, a Cincinnati warehousing company.
Frostee Lynn Rucker is a defensive end for the NFL’s Arizona Cardinals who formerly played for the Cincinnati Bengals and Cleveland Browns after his college career at the University of Southern California.
Lorain County
Bobby George is managing member of Corporate Management Group of Lakeside, a restaurant, real-estate and private-equity firm. George’s group runs several restaurants, including Harry Buffalo in Elyria and Barley House in downtown Cleveland.
Townhall, one of George’s restaurants in Cleveland, hosted a “welcome rally” for Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio, an opponent of marijuana legalization.
David Bruno is a businessman from Wellsville who owns Sterling China USA and other companies.
Tony Giardini is an attorney who previously worked on failed efforts to bring casino gambling to Lorain.
Lucas County
David Bastos, a Cincinnati real-estate developer and partner with Capital Investment Group Inc., said investing in marijuana was “a no-brainer” in terms of potential jobs and tax revenue.
Stark County
Ben Kovler is a Chicago investment banker who created a business called Green Thumb Industries to sell lighting, fertilizers and other items to marijuana-growing farms in Illinois, where medical marijuana is legal.
He also sold shares in his investment in Alliance, Ohio, to 23 investors, SEC records show.
Brian Kessler, the son of the man who patented the Hula-Hoop, is president of Maui Toys Inc., of Youngstown, one of the world’s largest toy manufacturers.
Kovler and Kessler plan to focus on growing marijuana for medical use.
Summit County
Nick Lachey gained international fame as a member of the popular boy band 98 Degrees. He later married singer/actress Jessica Simpson, with whom he filmed the reality-TV series Newlyweds. They have since divorced.
Lachey has also been a TV host on VH1 and is part-owner of minor-league basketball and baseball teams.
John Humphrey, of Texarkana, Texas, is involved in the payday-loan business as part-owner of CashMAX. He is chief financial officer of DMP Investments, a firm specializing in consumer finance.
William “Cheney” Pruett is president and chief executive officer of DMP Investments. His father, Dwight Pruett, is also an investor.
Keith Orr, a friend of the Pruetts, owns auto dealerships in Shreveport and Stonewall, La., and Paris and Texarkana, Texas.
ResponsibleOhio Staff Members
The organization has 16 paid staff members, led by Ian James, executive director of the organization and co-owner of the Strategy Network, a firm specializing in signature collection for political campaigns.
Also on the payroll are Denny Wojtanowski, a consultant and former Democratic state lawmaker; Bob Clegg, a media buyer for Midwest Communications; Neil Clark, a Republican political consultant and former Ohio Senate clerk; Chris Stock, a Cincinnati attorney who formerly worked for Attorney General Jim Petro; and Dennis Willard, a former journalist now with Democrat Ted Strickland’s campaign for U.S. Senate.
Also on the team are attorneys Don McTigue, Larry James and Andy Douglas, a former Ohio Supreme Court justice; Stephen Letourneau, a partner in the Strategy Network; Jim Kitchens, who heads a public-opinion research firm; Duane Baughman, a direct-mail-company executive, and Robert Kish of Third Wave Communications, a Columbus media and communications firm.
News Moderator: Jacob Redmond 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Investors in proposed Ohio marijuana farms are diverse lot
Author: Alan Johnson
Contact: Author Email
Photo Credit: Don Goofy/Flickr
Website: The Columbus Dispatch
Despite their widely varied backgrounds, investors in the for-profit ResponsibleOhio marijuana-legalization plan have something in common: They all want to make money, and lots of it.
The 24 known investors bought into a plan establishing 10 exclusive commercial marijuana-growing sites across the state. The list of investors does not include those who bought shares from the original investors but whose names are not disclosed on U.S. Securities Exchange Commission forms.
If marijuana legalization is approved by voters in the Nov. 3 election, investors will spend hundreds of millions to build enclosed structures to grow pot for a business estimated by ResponsibleOhio to generate $1 billion a year, which would be taxed, with proceeds going primarily to local governments.
Curt Steiner, spokesman for Ohioans Against Marijuana Monopolies, criticized the investor group, saying, “It’s a shame that a small number of wealthy individuals are trying to get richer by cementing themselves into the Ohio Constitution.”
Here’s a closer look, by county growing site, at the people who are putting up at least $20 million to bankroll the marijuana-legalization constitutional amendment and why they say they are involved.
Franklin County
Rick Kirk is a Columbus developer, president and chief executive officer of Hallmark Campus Communities, which owns residential apartment complexes near Ohio State, Kent State and Ohio universities, among others.
He is funding the site on Seeds Road in Grove City, south of I-71 and north of Zuber Road.
“Projections show that the marijuana industry will bring a significant influx of much-needed revenue to our communities,” Kirk said at a ResponsibleOhio news conference earlier this year.
Kirk is one of two investors known to have sold shares of his investment to other people. He reported six investors in his company, each contributing $300,000, according to a July 30 filing with the SEC.
Licking County
Dr. Suresh Gupta is a Dayton anesthesiologist and pain-management physician who owns the growing site in Pataskala. He said he plans to devote 90 percent of his property to cultivating marijuana for medicinal purposes.
“We look forward to providing much-needed medical marijuana for people with debilitating diseases,” he said, adding that the marijuana could be used by cancer patients or those with Alzheimer’s disease, post-traumatic stress disorder and other ailments.
He is a 1980 graduate of a medical college in India and has been in medical practices in Ohio since 1993.
Gupta was charged with five counts of gross sexual imposition in 2008 but was found not guilty on all charges. He has been named in several civil malpractice suits but has not lost any cases or paid damages, ResponsibleOhio officials said.
Sir Alan Mooney, who has three decades in the investment business, added “Sir” to his name in 2007 when he was knighted by Pope Benedict XVI as a member of the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre, a ceremonial order of the Roman Catholic Church dating from the Crusades. He has a minister’s license in Ohio.
Mooney caused a stir when word spread about a YouTube video, now publicly inaccessible, in which he pitched marijuana investments to several potential partners. “Let’s hop on this tsunami of money and ride the top of that wave to some enrichment for us,” he said in the video.
Delaware County
Jennifer Doering is an investor in a 25-acre site on Rt. 42 abutting the Delaware city limits in Concord Township. She is general manager with the Chas. Seligman Distributing Co., a Walton, Ky., beer and wine distributor.
“Marijuana legalization will help drive economic growth in Ohio. We will be responsible employers and examples of why respecting workers’ rights is simply good business,” Doering said at a news conference.
Butler County
Nanette Lepore , a Youngstown native and New York fashion designer, is the younger sister of state Rep. Michele Lepore-Hagan, D-Youngstown. She is also the sister-in-law of former state Rep. Bob Hagan, D-Youngstown, who offered unsuccessful marijuana-legalization legislation proposals in previous legislative sessions.
“This is an incredible opportunity for places like my hometown of Youngstown to generate significant dollars for things like road and bridge repair, which in turn will create thousands of needed jobs,” Lepore said in a statement.
Barbara Gould, of the affluent Cincinnati suburb Indian Hill, is involved in NG Green Investments, which would own the Butler County farm. Gould, a widow, has been a supporter of the arts, including the Cincinnati Ballet, and a contributor to candidates of both major political parties.
Her late husband, Bill Motto, founder and former chairman of Meridian Bioscience, died of cancer last year.
“He could have benefited from access to medical marijuana,” she said.
Paul Heldman, a Cincinnati attorney and former general counsel for the Kroger Co., has said he decided to invest because his son developed epilepsy 10 years ago and could be helped by medical marijuana. He is a board member of CenterBank.
“Until we legalize marijuana in Ohio and throughout our country, rigorous scientific research into its applications will not be possible and thousands, perhaps millions, of people will suffer needlessly,” Heldman said in a statement.
Woody Taft and Dudley Taft Jr. are brothers and the great-great-grandnephews of President William Howard Taft and cousins of former Gov. Bob Taft. Woody Taft is a private equity investor, vice president of development at Taft Broadcasting Co. and trustee of the Louise Taft Semple Foundation, a philanthropic arts group.
“Our current laws are archaic and cruel to the people in Ohio who need medical marijuana,” he said in a statement released earlier this year.
Dudley Taft Jr., a blues guitarist and graduate of the Berklee College of Music, has several albums to his credit, including Left for Dead and Skin and Bone. He owns rocker Peter Frampton’s former home and studio in the Cincinnati area.
“It’s appalling that black Ohioans are four times more likely to be arrested for marijuana than white Ohioans, even though both groups use it equally,” Dudley Taft said in a statement. “It is irresponsible to allow such an unjust system to continue.”
Clermont County
Frank “Bo” Wood, an investor in the Clermont County farm, operating as DGF LLC, is chief executive officer of Secret Communications, a Cincinnati investment firm. He is the former general manager and president of WEBN-FM radio in Cincinnati, a magazine publisher, concert promoter and father of the city’s Labor Day fireworks celebration.
Wood has an economics degree from Harvard University and a law degree from the University of Chicago.
Hamilton County
Oscar Robertson is probably the most high-profile investor. The former All-American basketball player at the University of Cincinnati and pro basketball star is now chairman of Orchem, a Cincinnati-based special chemical-manufacturing company.
“It’s a terrible feeling when you can’t help someone suffering from cancer or another debilitating medical condition — I know from personal experience,”
Robertson said in a statement. “But medical marijuana can give our loved ones relief. I’m part of ResponsibleOhio because I want to be part of making this change a reality.”
William J. Foster is the owner of A-1 Quality Logistical Solutions, a Cincinnati warehousing company.
Frostee Lynn Rucker is a defensive end for the NFL’s Arizona Cardinals who formerly played for the Cincinnati Bengals and Cleveland Browns after his college career at the University of Southern California.
Lorain County
Bobby George is managing member of Corporate Management Group of Lakeside, a restaurant, real-estate and private-equity firm. George’s group runs several restaurants, including Harry Buffalo in Elyria and Barley House in downtown Cleveland.
Townhall, one of George’s restaurants in Cleveland, hosted a “welcome rally” for Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio, an opponent of marijuana legalization.
David Bruno is a businessman from Wellsville who owns Sterling China USA and other companies.
Tony Giardini is an attorney who previously worked on failed efforts to bring casino gambling to Lorain.
Lucas County
David Bastos, a Cincinnati real-estate developer and partner with Capital Investment Group Inc., said investing in marijuana was “a no-brainer” in terms of potential jobs and tax revenue.
Stark County
Ben Kovler is a Chicago investment banker who created a business called Green Thumb Industries to sell lighting, fertilizers and other items to marijuana-growing farms in Illinois, where medical marijuana is legal.
He also sold shares in his investment in Alliance, Ohio, to 23 investors, SEC records show.
Brian Kessler, the son of the man who patented the Hula-Hoop, is president of Maui Toys Inc., of Youngstown, one of the world’s largest toy manufacturers.
Kovler and Kessler plan to focus on growing marijuana for medical use.
Summit County
Nick Lachey gained international fame as a member of the popular boy band 98 Degrees. He later married singer/actress Jessica Simpson, with whom he filmed the reality-TV series Newlyweds. They have since divorced.
Lachey has also been a TV host on VH1 and is part-owner of minor-league basketball and baseball teams.
John Humphrey, of Texarkana, Texas, is involved in the payday-loan business as part-owner of CashMAX. He is chief financial officer of DMP Investments, a firm specializing in consumer finance.
William “Cheney” Pruett is president and chief executive officer of DMP Investments. His father, Dwight Pruett, is also an investor.
Keith Orr, a friend of the Pruetts, owns auto dealerships in Shreveport and Stonewall, La., and Paris and Texarkana, Texas.
ResponsibleOhio Staff Members
The organization has 16 paid staff members, led by Ian James, executive director of the organization and co-owner of the Strategy Network, a firm specializing in signature collection for political campaigns.
Also on the payroll are Denny Wojtanowski, a consultant and former Democratic state lawmaker; Bob Clegg, a media buyer for Midwest Communications; Neil Clark, a Republican political consultant and former Ohio Senate clerk; Chris Stock, a Cincinnati attorney who formerly worked for Attorney General Jim Petro; and Dennis Willard, a former journalist now with Democrat Ted Strickland’s campaign for U.S. Senate.
Also on the team are attorneys Don McTigue, Larry James and Andy Douglas, a former Ohio Supreme Court justice; Stephen Letourneau, a partner in the Strategy Network; Jim Kitchens, who heads a public-opinion research firm; Duane Baughman, a direct-mail-company executive, and Robert Kish of Third Wave Communications, a Columbus media and communications firm.
News Moderator: Jacob Redmond 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Investors in proposed Ohio marijuana farms are diverse lot
Author: Alan Johnson
Contact: Author Email
Photo Credit: Don Goofy/Flickr
Website: The Columbus Dispatch
