A provision in a state law that launched Michigan’s marijuana industry attempted to prevent corruption, but then-Gov. Rick Snyder’s office failed to enforce it, and the public was kept in the dark as a key appointee took bribes, according to a Detroit News investigation.
The 2016 medical marijuana law required that members of the licensing board submit — under oath — financial disclosures about their debts and business interests annually. There’s no remaining documented proof that marijuana licensing board chairman Rick Johnson’s disclosure was submitted before his appointment or while he served in the role.
If the law had been followed and required annual disclosures were made, Snyder’s office could have had a chance to detect money flowing from lobbyists to business entities controlled by Johnson and monthly payments to Johnson’s wife by a businessman seeking marijuana licenses from Johnson’s board.
In one instance, a business that federal prosecutors say was used as a vehicle to funnel bribes to Johnson appears to have been concealed in 2018 because the governor’s office didn’t request financial records that year from members of the board as required by law, according to three board members.
Even if a disclosure was submitted, state policy directed the reports to the governor’s office, which is not subject to Michigan’s open records law, meaning the documents would remain secret out of public scrutiny.
To read more, click on Detroit News