It will be really interesting to see how this plays out. It's only a matter of time until one of these owners gets popped. This reads like a the basis of a movie script.
The banks are regulated by the fed and since Marijuana is still illegal at the federal level the banks won't take their money or let them open accounts. These owers are driving around with trunks full of cash.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/12/us/ba ... .html?_r=0
The banks are regulated by the fed and since Marijuana is still illegal at the federal level the banks won't take their money or let them open accounts. These owers are driving around with trunks full of cash.
more hereBanks Say No to Marijuana Money, Legal or Not
In his second-floor office above a hair salon in north Seattle, Ryan Kunkel is seated on a couch placing $1,000 bricks of cash — dozens of them — in a rumpled brown paper bag. When he finishes, he stashes the money in the trunk of his BMW and sets off on an adrenalized drive downtown, darting through traffic and nervously checking to see if anyone is following him.
“Carrying such large amounts of cash is a terrible risk that freaks me out a bit because there is the fear in my mind that the next car pulling up beside me could be the crew that hijacks us,” he said. “So, we have to play this never-ending shell game of different cars, different routes, different dates and different times.”Though 20 states and the District of Columbia allow either medical or recreational marijuana use — with more likely to follow suit — the drug remains illegal under federal law...
...As a result, banks, including state-chartered ones, are reluctant to provide traditional services to marijuana businesses. They fear that federal regulators and law enforcement authorities might punish them, with measures like large fines, for violating prohibitions on money-laundering, among other federal laws and regulations...
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/12/us/ba ... .html?_r=0
