Here’s the introduction to their investigative piece
The sign on the building said Jerry’s Liquor, but inside, Compton code enforcement inspectors found a cannabis dispensary called Fly High 20 Collective.
The discovery of the black market dispensary in 2019 wasn’t unusual in a city plagued with them. But when authorities looked deeper into the property on Rosecrans Avenue, they found something startling: It was owned by Tony Huang, the man behind one of the cannabis industry’s biggest and most successful companies.
After co-founding Stiiizy in 2017, the San Gabriel Valley native and his partners created a vertical enterprise that grows, distributes and sells marijuana legally throughout California. More than just a company, Stiiizy markets itself as a “lifestyle brand” that sells clothing, hosts live events and donates money to social justice causes.
But in a pending abatement suit, Compton’s lawyers claimed Stiiizy’s co-founder “is also known for his serial operations of various illegal cannabis dispensaries.” The city said in the lawsuit it believes that Huang, as the landlord, “controlled the illegal sale of marijuana from the property.”
Huang’s holding companies owned nine properties that municipal, county or state authorities have identified as sites of illegal dispensaries, according to a Times review of property, court and tax records. The documents, as well as interviews with law enforcement officials and dispensary employees, revealed ties between Huang’s properties and a larger web of unlawful cannabis storefronts across the Southland connected through real estate deals, common lenders or shared tenants.
Huang declined to be interviewed. His spokesman, Michael Sitrick, said in a statement that Huang purchased a number of investment properties that tenants used, without his knowledge and in violation of the leases, as illegal dispensaries. He tried his best to evict them, Sitrick said, and when those efforts failed, he sold the properties.
Read then full report
Sean Hocking
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