As part of the schemes, Anderson – a disbarred attorney previously licensed in Nevada – created sham businesses like Harvest Farm Group, Bio Pharma and Verta Bottling, with websites he built through GoDaddy.com and which he backed with fake legal and business documents.
Above the Law reports
When states began to legalize the production and sale of weed, people were quick to try and make a quick buck off the blunts being passed around. 2020 was a big year for lawyers and their burgeoning cannabis practices. Between consumer demand and the legal ambiguities of weed being legal in some states while also being a Schedule 1 drug federally, the clear legal ambiguity put dollar signs in many a lawyers’ eyes. For example, DLA Piper made headlines when they announced their cannabis practice. Biglaw firms weren’t the only ones that wanted a slice of the leaf. One attorney’s attempt to cash in on the cash crop earned him decades behind bars. My News LA has coverage:
Mark Roy Anderson, 70, who was living in Beverly Hills while on supervised release after serving more than 11 years in federal prison in the earlier case, pleaded guilty in April 2024 to two federal wire fraud counts, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
…
[He] was sentenced Wednesday to 25 years behind bars for duping investors out of about $18.4 million…by falsely claiming that his companies invested in high-profit hemp farms and cannabis-infused retail products as well as a sham bottling business.
Read more at
https://abovethelaw.com/2025/03/20m-hemp-fraud-lands-disbarred-attorney-in-prison/
and
https://people.com/calif-con-artist-bilked-18-million-victims-peddling-fake-cannabis-farm-8628598
