#Helios dayspring san luis obispo free

Rybarczyk of the Public Corruption and Civil Rights Section prosecuted it.Ĭlick here for more stories from The San Luis Obispo Tribune. The FBI and IRS Criminal Investigation team investigated the case, and Assistant United States Attorney Thomas F. “To accomplish that goal, he would not let anything get in his way, including the law.”

Shoals did not respond to the offer, and Dayspring did not pay the bribe.ĭayspring “had one goal: build a cannabis empire,” prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memorandum. Three dispensaries operated by Natural Healing Center, the cannabis dispensary business Dayspring founded, recently sold for $5.7 million cash and $16.9 million in stock, but it is unclear if this sale benefited Dayspring directly.ĭayspring began paying bribes to Hill between fall 2016 and November 2019, according to the DOJ.Īt the time, he owned, operated and had a controlling interest in multiple cannabis farms in San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties while also growing his Natural Healing Center business.ĭuring a September 2017 dinner meeting, Dayspring also attempted to bribe John Shoals, then mayor of Grover Beach, with $100,000 in exchange for two dispensary licenses in the city, the news release said. The DOJ also confirmed Dayspring paid back the taxes he didn’t report to the IRS including interest - a total of $3,438,793 - before he was sentenced. During the 2018 tax year, Dayspring reported that his taxable income was $1,262,894, when his income in reality was more than $6.5 million.

#Helios dayspring san luis obispo free

He had previously attempted suicide in March 2020, on the same day the FBI searched his home and his office in the county government building.The DOJ said in the news release that cash payments, money orders and free items totaling nearly $32,000 were given to Hill in exchange for his votes and influence on decisions affecting Dayspring’s cannabis business interests, including voting multiple times in favor of legislation that permitted Dayspring’s farms to operate before it had obtained final permitting approvals.ĭayspring also “voluntarily and intentionally” under-reported his taxable income to the IRS, according to the plea agreement.īetween 20, the IRS lost more than $3.4 million in tax revenue because of Dayspring’s false reporting, the release said. Hill died by suicide in August 2020 after taking a leave from the board to seek mental health treatment. Natural Healing Center was awarded one such permit, though the mayor did not accept the $100,000 Dayspring had offered as a bribe. In 2017, Dayspring also attempted to bribe the then-mayor of Grover Beach to obtain two retail dispensary permits. In his plea agreement, Dayspring admitted that from 2016 to 2019, he gave cash and gifts to Hill in exchange for his support when the San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors voted on permits and land use regulations for growing cannabis, including votes that allowed Dayspring’s farms to operate before they obtained final permits. After his guilty plea, he transferred ownership of the dispensaries to his girlfriend, Valnette Garcia, who sold three of them earlier in May to Glass House Brands, a Carpinteria-based cannabis company, for $22.6 million in cash and stock. “To accomplish that goal, he would not let anything get in his way, including the law.”ĭayspring, 36, owned and operated multiple cannabis farms as well as retail dispensaries under the Natural Healing Center name.

Attorney’s Office.ĭayspring pleaded guilty last year to bribery and filing false income tax returns, admitting to paying the late Supervisor Adam Hill around $32,000 in bribes in exchange for Hill’s votes on permitting cannabis growing operations and related matters at the county level.ĭayspring “had one goal: build a cannabis empire,” prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memorandum.

Dayspring has also paid $3.4 million to the IRS as restitution for the tax crime, which is the approximate amount he underpaid his federal income taxes between 20, according to a news release from the U.S. Helios Dayspring, shown here on the site of his active grow east of Santa Maria, will plead this month to federal felony charges of bribery and tax evasion, including tax fraud in Santa Barbara County. Helios Dayspring, who also goes by “Bobby,” was sentenced on May 27 by U.S.

The cannabis grower who bribed a San Luis Obispo County supervisor has been sentenced to 22 months in federal prison.