Leah and Travis Maurer, known advocates for legalization of marijuana in Oregon, are facing a million-dollar lawsuit for fraud for allegedly not growing marijuana when they were supposed to.
In 2013, Travis Maurer moved to Portland after a conviction for growing marijuana in Missouri. After that, Maurer and wife, Leah, set up a campaign and gathered funding for the ballot measure that led to the legalization of marijuana in Oregon.
However, the marijuana advocate couple ran into some legal troubles last week, when a lawsuit was filed by their business partner, Randy Quast, against them. Following the footsteps of Maurer, Quast is a well-known businessman who moved to Oregon from Minnesota after weed-related legal issue. Upon moving to Oregon and being involved in the advocacy, Quast became the treasurer of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws for its Portland chapter.
While both sides are all for marijuana law reform, one is pursuing a legal case for the lack of actual weed. Quast is saying that the Maurers fooled him into believing they were cultivating marijuana when they actually were not.
As a result, Quast filed a lawsuit dated January 15 stating that he deposited $1,555,570 for the legalization campaign, and another $696,769 to spearhead an indoor growing dispensary. Quast says that the business never thrived because it was not worked on the first place.
The lawsuit, which was first reported by Oregon Live, states that Quast visited the warehouse and saw the place empty and that the couple did not rent the said warehouse in the first place.
"No marijuana plants had ever been planted or were growing anywhere," states the lawsuit, as reported by Willamette Week.
As a response, the Maurers state that they disagree with Quast's lawsuit.
"We certainly don't agree with the claims and we will respond in due course," wrote the Maurers in their prepared statement to the Willamette Week.
