Apr 25, 2024
Lamoille County Cannabis and its associated cannabis gummy manufacturing operation, Lindies Kitchen, have been shut down by the Vermont Cannabis Control Board after its owner’s legal troubles severely disrupted the business, resulting in an unsanctioned change in management, an unsecured supply of drugs and allegations of theft.
At the end of March, the control board issued notices of violation and orders to cease and desist operations at the dispensary and manufacturing site on Stafford Avenue in Morrisville for “attempting to change control of a licensee without prior approval of the board.”
This infraction stemmed from a documented attempt by Matt Lindemer, an owner at both the cannabis shop and gummy manufacturer, to transfer control of the operation to his wife, Kirby Lindemer, without approval from the state.
That effort came about a month after Matt Lindemer was arrested for domestic violence.
The notices of suspension allege that Lindemer exhibited “erratic behavior” both at his cannabis shop and “in the broader community” in the month between his arrest and the suspension of his businesses’ licenses, noting both his domestic violence arrest and an incident where he crashed his vehicle but could not recall how the crash had occurred.
These incidents and other unspecified incidents of “disorder,” as it was characterized by the control board’s investigating agent Denise McCarty, prompted the Cannabis Collective, a marijuana grow operation adjoining Lindemer’s retail store, to complain to Kent Mikus, a lawyer and minority owner of the Lamoille County Cannabis and Lindies Kitchen.
Mikus, who owns the building where Lamoille County Cannabis and Lindies Kitchen operated, attempted to evict both businesses, but his ability to respond to the situation was limited as he lives outside of Vermont.
As Mikus moved forward on the eviction and the control board authorized the few remaining employees to secure the operation’s inventory and properly liquidate it, the Lindemers attempted to exert control.
The board alleged that Kirby Lindemer “threatened and harassed the few staff who remained.”
According to screenshots of texts furnished to the board, Kirby Lindemer reached out to one employee claiming that Matt Lindemer had made her his “proxy” and ceded management of the businesses to her. When this employee refused to comply, she told him he was “fired,” that he was “taking food out of (her) children’s mouths” and alleging Mikus couldn’t make any decisions without Matt Lindemer’s approval while she viewed what was happening at the business remotely through security cameras.
Matt Lindemer also texted this employee affirming that his wife would be taking over the business and, when he didn’t receive a reply, asked him why he was “crushing everything (he) built” and said that his kids “didn’t deserve whatever this is.”
The control board cited the communications captured in these texts as evidence that the Lindemers were going to attempt to continue to operate both Lamoille County Cannabis and Lindies Kitchen despite Mikus’ attempted eviction and the impending cease and desist order from the control board.
The control board determined Lindemer was “incapable of executing his regulatory responsibilities or effectively supervising or responsibly operating” both businesses.
“The situation between Lindemer, Mikus, their affiliates, and current and former staff, is so volatile and uncertain that the CCB cannot determine who has actual control of the premises or even who speaks for (Lamoille County Cannabis and Lindies Kitchen),” the control board said in one notice.
The board summarized that Lamoille County Cannabis and Lindies Kitchen were “effectively unmanaged, face eviction from their premises, have no substantial staff, likely lack funds to pay staff, are not using their approved cannabis accounts to deposit revenue and pay creditors, and consequently cannot be relied upon to secure their cannabis inventory.”
As part of the order to cease and desist, Matt Lindemer was barred from the Stafford Avenue operation without prior approval of the control board. Lindemer and Mikus are both also responsible for paying a $10,000 fine, though a pre-hearing conference was scheduled to allow the two parties to attempt to appeal the decision or negotiate a different penalty.
Matt Lindemer, his legal representation and Mikus did not return a request for comment.
During McCarty’s investigation, aggrieved creditors showed up at the dispensary seeking remand for a bounced check for $5,000.
Following McCarty’s initial investigation, Matt Lindemer or someone acting on his behalf had withdrawn all the funds from the businesses’ respective accounts “leaving no funds to pay employees,” according to the control board, leaving Mikus to work out an arrangement to pay unpaid employees.
Holland Cannabis, a cultivator based in a Northeast Kingdom town of Holland, also reached out to the control board after the Morristown cannabis businesses were shut down and alleged that they owed the cannabis grower “over $31,000 as a result of alleged stolen product, bounced checks and unpaid invoices.”
Representatives of Holland Cannabis alleged that the marijuana they delivered to Matt Lindemer was done so with the understanding that it would be turned into cannabis gummies and returned to them, but they allege it wasn’t.
“As it was not only not manufactured into the agreed product we directed, what we just learned, it was manufactured into an alternate unauthorized product and sold to the public without any compensation offered to Holland Cannabis and therefore never returned,” a representative of Holland Cannabis said.
Now Lamoille County Cannabis leaves a much more crowded market than it found, with three other retail shops in Morrisville, including one that also manufactures gummies.
Before the suspension of his licenses and his uncertain future as a cannabis entrepreneur, Lindemer had made himself the public face of legalized retail cannabis in Morristown, eagerly to be among the first to open a cannabis shop in town.
“Cannabis is one of my passions,” Lindemer said at a 2021 Morristown Selectboard meeting. “I want to give back to the community in something I’m passionate about.”
He had attempted to get a petition together to force a vote to allow retail pot sales in Morristown, but the board agreed to put it up for a vote without one. He had said he wanted his application for a store to be “at the top of the pile.”
Lindemer campaigned initially to hold a vote for retail cannabis sales in his native Stowe, which still hasn’t held a vote on whether to allow retail cannabis. His Lindies Kitchen business began as a cannabidiol gummies business prior to the establishment of retail marijuana.
When his shop first opened in the fall of 2022, Lindemer spoke to the News & Citizen about big plans he had to expand Lindies Kitchen into manufacturing other cannabis-infused products.
“We’re trying to be as legal and compliant as we absolutely possibly can be, but a lot of this stuff is still a gray area that (the state) hasn’t really detailed the answer on how to figure it out,” Lindemer said at the time.
Comments