Former Eaze CEO Pleads Guilty To Conspiracy to Commit Bank Fraud
LOS ANGELES – Well-known Cannabis delivery platform, Eaze, became a household name due to their bright billboards placed on California roads and highways. The “Uber of pot,” delivery service was launched in 2014 and was eventually backed with $166 million in funding.
Eaze the company is not implicated. Nor are Eaze a defendant in this case. Reporting from Marijuana Business Daily, says former CEO, James Patterson, pled guilty last Friday to one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud to work around restrictions on cannabis-related companies and bypass rules regarding the use of credit cards for cannabis purchases.
Others – Ruben Weigand and Hamid “Ray” Akhavan have also been implicated and are set for trial next week in New York federal court, Marijuana Business Daily reports, and Patterson has already lodged a guilty plea with the court. Having joined the c-suite at Eaze in 2016, Patterson resigned from Eaze in 2019.
The trio are alleged to have known of the creation of fake online merchants to handle $100 million in credit and debit payments, including all sorts of merchants that supposedly sold carbonated drinks and skin care products.
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