John J. Czarkowski, a manager of Advanced Grow Labs LLC, one of four companies chosen for licenses to legally produce medical marijuana in Connecticut, was forced to shut down his Colorado marijuana facility in 2012 after the city of Boulder revoked its license, public documents show.
In a letter dated March 2, 2012, the city of Boulder notified Boulder Kind Care LLC, a marijuana dispensary and production facility, that it was revoking its license for a variety of violations, including:
— Failure to properly store and label marijuana.
— Not having cameras in use on the premises, as required.
— Making a "materially false statement" in its application for a construction permit.
The revocation letter also said that Czarkowski's business partner at Boulder Kind Care appeared to be "under the influence of marijuana" as he guided a city official and a police officer on an inspection of the facility Feb. 2, 2012. The letter said that the partner exhibited "dry mouth, white lips, coated tongue and sunglasses that he would not take off."
Connecticut officials said Tuesday that they were checking with city officials in Boulder about the problem, which state Consumer Protection Commissioner William Rubenstein said "was not disclosed to us" in Advance Grow Labs' application for the grower's license it now has been issued.
Rubenstein said he did not know how long his inquiry would take or how it might affect Advanced Grow Labs in Connecticut.
Rubenstein said his agency began checking into the license revocation in Colorado after the Boston Globe published a story about it Tuesday morning. The front-page Globe story said that Czarkowski and his wife — who now are managers of three companies that have won preliminary approval to run medical marijuana dispensaries in Massachusetts — had sold the Boulder marijuana business two months after receiving the city's license-revocation notice.
Czarkowski could not be reached for comment Tuesday. However, the Globe quoted him as saying that Boulder city officials engaged in a "witch hunt" against his firm over an "innocent mistake" by his business partner on a construction application.
Czarkowski, who also goes by the name Jay, is listed in Connecticut licensing application documents as the director of production for Advanced Grow Labs, a Fairfield-based corporation. He is one of five key managers listed for the company, which plans to grow marijuana in a West Haven warehouse.
That same warehouse was used as the site of a Jan. 28 press conference at which Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and Rubenstein announced the four firms, including Advanced Grow Labs, that were selected among 16 applicants as the first to win licenses as growers in Connecticut.
A mini-biography of Czarkowski, which Advanced Grow Labs submitted to the Department of Consumer Protection with its licensing application last year, says that he founded Boulder Kind Care, which the bio described as "a successful [marijuana] dispensary and production facility in Boulder, Colorado."
The bio says that the Colorado company grew to 20 employees and $2.4 million in annual sales in the three years after it was founded in 2009. Czarkowski's co-founder at Boulder Kind Care was his wife, Diane Czarkowski.
The bio submitted says that Boulder Kind Care "was sold in 2012."
But it doesn't mention what else happened at the time — that the city revoked the company's license.
"Boulder Kind Care attempted to get an injunction against the city enforcing the revocation of license," Kathy Haddock, senior assistant city attorney in Boulder, said Tuesday after providing documents to The Courant about the case. "Neither the District Court nor the Court of Appeals granted the injunction or a stay, and Boulder Kind Care ultimately dismissed the case."
Rubenstein, the Connecticut consumer protection commissioner, said his department staff had "done a lot of due diligence" about the companies chosen for licenses, including contacting the state of Colorado in connection with Advanced Grow Labs. But they didn't contact municipal officials in Boulder — which, he said, they were now doing.
"We are trying to learn the actual facts," Rubenstein said.
The commissioner added that members of the Advanced Grow Labs team also have applied for at least one dispensary license to sell medical marijuana.
Diane Whitney, an attorney representing Advanced Grow Labs, said Tuesday that she had no information on the problems in Boulder but would seek answers from managers of the business, including its managing partner, David Lipton. Lipton's Fairfield address is used by the company in its corporate registration papers with the state. The Courant asked to speak with Czarkowski and left a message on Lipton's home phone voicemail seeking comment.
Meanwhile, the Globe also reported that Diane Czarkowski filed for personal bankruptcy last year and was released from repayment of more than $400,000 in debts by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court last June.
Rubenstein said that the bankruptcy case was disclosed to Connecticut officials by Advanced Grow Labs.
Court records show that during that proceeding, American Express Bank and American Express Centurion Bank claimed in court that Diane Czarkowski used an Amex account connected with Boulder Kind Care to run up thousands of dollars in charges in the two months before she filed for bankruptcy in February 2013.
The charges were for airplane fares and other "luxury goods and/or services," the court documents said. The Amex Banks' court action said that Diane Czarkowski was "financially sophisticated" and had no reasonable expectation that she would be able to repay the debts, some of which, court papers said, were on behalf of her husband.
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