The document is a sordid account of how a wheeler and dealer in the states nascent, ill-regulated marijuana industry corrupted one of San Luis Obispo Countys most powerful politicians, who was apparently brazen enough to write in a text message to his illicit benefactor that he deserved one giant French kiss wrapped in money after fighting off a proposal to ban outdoor cannabis grows. Federal prosecutors downplayed the value of Daysprings work as an informant, saying it had led to no new investigations or arrests. Please reload the page and try again. Daysprings tax practices should serve as a lesson to those in the cannabis business. Please reload the page and try again. Megans Organic Market and SLOCAL Roots are his criminal front organizations actively laundering his money and carrying the business forward. ? Dayspring said they dined with Hill at a restaurant in Pismo Beach and gave the supervisor $5,000 in cash after the meal. He will face a maximum sentence of 13 years in federal prison. Julie A. Werner-Simon is a former federal prosecutor, former constitutional law fellow, and currently serves as a law professor (adjunct) at University of Southern Californias Gould School of Law, Drexel Universitys Kline School of Law, and is also a legal analyst at Drexels LeBow School of Business. When you think about who has to scramble, Helios might be the hardest worker and will need this deserved rest. According to federal prosecutors, from fall 2016 to 2019, Dayspring paid the . Do not corruptly influence political decision makers. Copyright 2023 Santa Barbara Independent, Inc. Reproduction of material from any Independent.com pages without written permission is strictly prohibited. The county approved amoratorium in September 2016 on growing cannabis in unincorporated areas, and Dayspring wanted the county to avoid enforcing that moratorium for existing growers. According to the plea agreement filed in U.S. District Court Wednesday, Dayspring operated and had a controlling interest in multiple cannabis farms and dispensaries that required approval from SLO County and the city of Grover Beach. Trew Knowledge. All cannabis operators are required to pay their taxes. Count One charged federal bribery and Count Two charged that Dayspring intentionally under-reported his business income on his federal tax returns. LOS ANGELES Federal prosecutors today filed a criminal information charging a San Luis Obispo man with bribery for paying a county supervisor approximately $32,000 most of that in cash in exchange for the supervisors votes and influence on other votes affecting his cannabis business interests. The cannabis business owner appeared in federal court by video on Friday, Oct. 22. Business partner 1 told defendant that this meeting was their chance to bribe (Shoals).. Dayspring said in his plea agreement that, in exchange for bribes, Hill took official actions that benefited his marijuana ventures, such as voting in favor of exempting certain cultivators from a moratorium on growing marijuana on unincorporated land and opposing a potential ban on outdoor grows. Dayspring agreed to plead guilty to both felony offenses, pay $3.4 million in restitution to the IRS, and cooperate in the governments ongoing investigation, as part of a plea agreement. Before joining The Times in 2018, he covered city news and state politics at the Hartford Courant. Hill died after taking a leave from the board to seek mental health treatment. Hill died by suicide at age 54 in August 2020. After that exchange, two days later, the county supervisor texted Dayspring that the official had been successful. The mayor did not respond to the offer, and Dayspring did not pay the bribe. Have a question about Government Services? (213) 894-4465. Shoals did not accept the payment. Dayspring wrote that he learned to fish using a line tethered to a coat hanger, killed birds for food, and learned the value of hard work at an early age. He also had ownership interests in businesses that sold marijuana to the public, including in Grover Beach. He pleaded guilty in July to bribery and filing a false tax return. Official websites use .gov The U.S. Attorney's Office in Los Angeles announced bribery and tax evasion charges against Natural Healing Center co-founder and owner Helios Dayspring just days after a Santa Barbara County Superior Court judge denied the cannabis company's petition against the county for the score NHC received . Not understood by some, the feds have broad jurisdiction to investigate and prosecute cases at the local and state levelso long as there is a federal interest. Bribery of a state or local official is a federal crime where the locality or the state has received in excess of $10,000 for any federal program (which could be food stamps or even highway reconstruction money). Have a question about Government Services? Big Law, specialty, and/or former federal prosecutors who handle cannabis industry work, as a general rule, intimately know the ins and outs of cannabis licensure and have handled complex cannabis regulatory and/or transactional matters. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); The freshest news in Santa Barbara County. This has been a passion of mine for a long time.. DAYSPRING: "It's really important you guys extend the time frame for submission and don't allow other people in yet [as] [t]his affects all the properties that I just got investment into, every one of them. A San Luis Obispo County cannabis grower and dispensary owner bribed the late County Supervisor Adam Hill and attempted to bribe the mayor of Grover Beach, and will plead guilty to federal bribery and tax crimes. Fleet strength of Helios LPG has steadily grown to more than 20 vessels within one year of its launch. According to the Santa Maria Times, Dayspring appeared in court on Friday via Zoom to enter guilty pleas for one charge of bribery and one of tax evasion. When Shoals returned to the table, Dayspring showed the mayor his cell phone, which had the number 100,000 displayed on the calculator app. Subscribe County, Dayspring was well-known in northern Santa Barbara County, where he operated several industrial-scale cannabis operations off the steep and winding road that wends through the bucolic paradise of Tepusquet Canyon. The Tribune has reached out to Peschong to request comments on the charges and bribery allegations, but Peschong did not respond as of Wednesday night. Helios Dayspring, founder of Central Californias Natural Healing Center dispensaries, was sentenced to a 22-month prison sentence. A San Luis Obispo County cannabis dispensary founder will plead guilty to bribing late county supervisor Adam Hill in exchange for favorable votes, influence over other government officials and confidential information, federal prosecutors announced Wednesday. "Bobby Dayspring," 36, was sentenced by United States District Judge Andr Birotte Jr. Dayspring has paid the restitution order of $3,438,793 to the IRS in this case. Gavin Newsomappointed Dawn Ortiz-Legg to fill the District 3 seatin November 2020. Prosecutors charged Helios Raphael Dayspring, 35, of San Luis Obispo with one count of bribery and one count of subscribing to a false 2018 income tax return, when he allegedly deliberately failed . Helios "Bobby" Dayspring, 35, appeared via Zoom before Judge Andre Birotte Jr. in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California to enter guilty pleas to one count of federal . But all that would happen only after the bribery scandal had been exposed. The attempted $100,000 bribe took place during a dinner meeting in September 2017. Processing By 2013, Dayspring was supplying an estimated 30 legal dispensaries in Riverside and San Bernardino counties, his attorney wrote. San Luis Obispos budget includes federal program funds, hence the interest. The authorities also discovered that $5,000 cash from Dayspring had been provided to the birthday celebrant. In October 2021, Dayspring pleaded guilty to one count of bribery and one count of subscribing to a false income tax return. Tight on Time: Can Canadas Licensed Producers Hang On? Dayspring asserted that he was led astray by his prior lawyer (whom he wrongly thought had expertise with the complications and hurdles of cannabis businesses). Why make oneself so susceptible to federal prosecution when the better course is to lay low and follow the rules? Instead, Dayspring will serve his time in Fresno County at FCI Mendotas minimum security satellite camp. Even though cannabis production and distribution is legal in California, it remains illegally federally. Following his recovery, Hill returned to Board of Supervisors meetings. Keep up with Noozhawk's daily news coverage, delivered at 4:15 a.m. right to your inbox. Helios Dayspring had one goal: build a cannabis empire that, in his words, would be "too big to fail." . Later that month, he gave hill $3,000 in cash, the first payment in what would amount to $29,000 in cash over the next three years. Californias coastal King of Cannabis, Helios Dayspring, owner of a San Luis Obispo cannabis cultivation site, supplier to many licensed California dispensaries, and founder of Central Californias Natural Healing Center dispensary, was sentenced to a 22-month prison sentence, in a downtown Los Angeles federal courtroom May 27. ? and Dayspring responded, we are the industry., In 2017, Dayspring also attempted to bribe the then-mayor of Grover Beach, John Shoals, referred to in the plea agreement as Mayor 1.. Invariably, a federal corruption or fraud case will involve money that was not reported to the IRS. May 27, 2022, 9:17 PM. If I am not deemed complete and get accepted, conditional use permits, I don't get my ownership in the land. He said he spent millions transitioning into the legal cannabis market. While they were eating, the mayor got up to use the restroom and Daysprings business partner said this was their chance to offer the bribe, the agreement says. Processing "Please be advised that Helios Dayspring has sold his interest in NHCSLO, LLC, to Valnette Garcia," attorney Paul Ready wrote on Sept. 9, 2020, referring to Dayspring's dispensary, Natural Healing Center. Not all lawyers have the skill set to do so. The recommended range for his crimes under federal sentencing guidelines is between 33 and 41 months, and prosecutors have agreed to ask for a sentence at the low end of that range, if Dayspring continues to cooperate with authorities and follow the restrictions of his plea deal. For 2018, for example, he reported taxable income of $1.26 million when his actual income was more than $6.5 million. Prosecutors charged Helios Raphael Dayspring, 35, of San Luis Obispo with one count of bribery and one count of subscribing to a false 2018 income tax return, when he allegedly deliberately failed . The most important question of the five? On the way to the restaurant, the business partner told Dayspring that Shoals wanted a bribe in exchange for the permits. In December 2018, Dayspring and Hill discussed the importance of having (Hill) and other county supervisors approve the continued abeyance on enforcement action and how a lapse in the abeyance would affect his cannabis farms.. 312 North Spring Street Do you represent people in family law matters to include divorce and child custody. But after being sentenced to 22 months behind bars last week by a federal judge for paying $32,000 in bribes to a San Luis Obispo County Supervisor over a period of three years, it would seem Dayspring should have been named instead after Icarus, another . He took another $5,000 in cash as well as cannabis products in early 2018. In addition, Dayspring was sentenced for underreporting his income to the tune of $9 million to the IRS and shorting the government $3.4 million in tax payments. Through 2018, Dayspring said he gave Hill $5,000 in cash and various cannabis-related products, his agreement says. Dayspring, 35, owns cannabis farms in San Luis Obispo County as well as the Natural Healing Center dispensaries in San Luis Obispo, Morro Bay and Grover Beach. We'll see what we can do. Dayspring also acknowledged filing a tax return in 2019 that reported his taxable income as $1,262,894 when it in fact exceeded $6.5 million, the agreement says. Dayspring has also been embroiled in a series of lawsuits from former business partners, including a lawsuit by investor William Szymczak, who claims Dayspring allegedly diverted millions in company funds to himself,and used some to try to stave off IRS and FBI investigations. LKCMedicine's Health for Life in Singapore (HELIOS) Study is proud to be a part of the SG100K, a landmark comprehensive population health study of 100,000 Singaporeans over a few decades to identify social, environmental, lifestyle and genetic factors associated with diseases . Specifically, defendant told (Hill) in a text message that its really important u guys extend the timeframe for submission and dont allow other people in yet referring to the countys impending vote on Dec. 11, 2018, to extend the abeyances on enforcement action against cannabis cultivators, the filing reads. In September 2017, Dayspring, an unnamed business associate and Shoals referred to only as Mayor 1 met at a restaurant in Arroyo Grande. FBI please finish the job! Residents there had been complaining of Daysprings aggressive scofflaw methods large trucks driving back and forth, night lights and night generators blaring forth, illegal grading, creek degradation, and cultivating in excess of permits since 2015. {"requests":{"event":"https:\/\/www.noozhawk.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/newspack-popups\/includes\/..\/api\/campaigns\/index.php"},"triggers":{"trackPageview":{"on":"visible","request":"event","visibilitySpec":{"selector":"#c00b","visiblePercentageMin":50,"totalTimeMin":250,"continuousTimeMin":100},"extraUrlParams":{"popup_id":"id_234460","cid":"CLIENT_ID(newspack-cid)"}},"formSubmitSuccess":{"on":"amp-form-submit-success","request":"event","selector":"#c00b .wp-block-jetpack-mailchimp form","extraUrlParams":{"popup_id":"id_234460","cid":"CLIENT_ID(newspack-cid)","mailing_list_status":"subscribed","email":"${formFields[email]}","esp":"mailchimp"}}}} Center dispensaries, was sentenced to a false tax return a bribe in for... 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