Owners of The Lazy Lion in Colorado Springs, Colorado have recently been found guilty of filing false tax reports. On Wednesday February 13th, 31-year-old Andrew Poarch pled guilty to these charges, his wife, Shuntay Poarch, is scheduled to face trial for the same crime March 25th.
The couple are accused by the IRS of not paying $3.1 million in federal taxes and was determined that the dispensary grossed about $10.8 million in revenue since its opening in January 2013.
The Lazy Lion was a dispensary in Colorado Springs that allowed customers to purchase cannabis from the establishment, and smoke it there as well. The dispensary was never registered as a recreational dispensary and never registered with the city to allow their customers to consume cannabis on the property.
They acted as a cash only business until August 2016 when they were shut down by the feds. Customers could sign up to join a private club by signing a customer agreement with the dispensary and paying an initial fee. The customers would then pay a smaller entry fee for following visits and whatever their cannabis cost.
The owners supplied their store with several grow operations from around Colorado Springs that the couple also owned.
The couple claimed on their 2014 taxes that they made a little less than $20 thousand when in reality they made more than $2.8 million and owed $1 million in taxes. The couple then failed to file income tax reports for 2015 and 2016 where they made about $4.2 million and $1.3 million respectively.
Customers and other locals said that they were largely unaware the company was acting illegally, and that it gives a bad name to cannabis clubs and dispensaries everywhere and that the owners were acting out of sheer greed.
Andrew Poarch will be sentenced May 22nd and was initially charged December 20th.
