Ohio Medical Cannabis Company Files Response To Trulieve's Loan Default Claims

In a recent development, Harvest of Ohio has issued a forceful response to allegations of loan default by Florida-based Trulieve Cannabis Corp TCNNF and its subsidiaries.

What Happened: Harvest of Ohio accused Trulieve Inc., Harvest Health and Recreation (HHR), and associated entities of orchestrating an unlawful enterprise to execute a hostile takeover of their Black and woman-owned medical cannabis business in Ohio.

The response contended that Trulieve Entities, instead of delivering on their promises to support Harvest of Ohio, engaged in predatory practices that hindered the business's operations.

These practices included imposing predatory loans with exorbitant charges, offering empty operational support, underfunding the cultivation facility, and misleading state regulators, per a press release.

Harvest of Ohio further alleged that Trulieve Entities exploited a statutory carve-out intended to promote equity in Ohio's cannabis industry, while simultaneously scheming to displace the predominantly Black and female ownership group and executive team.

Moreover, the response claims that Trulieve intentionally engaged in bad-faith negotiations while securing licenses to compete with Harvest of Ohio in the Ohio market.

Subsequently, Trulieve abruptly terminated negotiations and initiated a lawsuit.

The case is now pending in the Ohio Court of Common Pleas, Franklin County, under Case No. 23 CV 005001.

• Trulieve CEO Kim Rivers was a keynote speaker at the Benzinga Cannabis Capital Conference on September 27 in Chicago.

Price Action: Trulieve's shares traded 0.16% down at $ 6.20 per share at the time of writing late Friday afternoon.

Image by Sasun Bughdaryan On Unsplash