Kurshid Khoja is the founder of the Greenbridge Corporate Counsel, a firm that seeks to provide services and assistance that can help to grow the green economy. They seek to focus on cannabis businesses, assisting those who are involved in the medical and legal cannabis industry.
They don't encourage people to violate any laws, but for those who are currently engaging in civil disobedience by working with cannabis, Greenbridge wants to help them gain access to competent business counsel.
This means helping them with things like daily operations, working with regulations, and more.
But recently his bank, Umpqua Bank, wanted to know more about his clients and this causes a problem for him because his first duty is to his clients and therefore he has a duty to protect their confidentiality.
The bank allegedly wanted to know more specifics about just how involved Khoja was with the cannabis industry and more about his clients and their work. Khoja allegedly communicated with them, asking for some time to gather the information they were seeking, because he couldn't simply give away that information without first obtaining the consent to do so. The bank threatened though that they would close his account if he didn't provide what they wanted.
Another lawyer, Brian Vincente from Vincente Sederberg that's located in Colorado, says that he has been dropped from banks multiple times for working with cannabis businesses.
It's clear that they need an alternative and so it's no wonder that a variety of entrepreneurs in the cryptocurrency space have been looking to see if they could provide a proper solution.
For Umpqua Bank, this isn't the first time that they've seemed to crack down on those working in the cannabis industry. Another customer of theirs, involved with a hemp clothing company, also recently alleged that they too received a letter threatening an end to their account. And they likely aren't the only ones.
In his response to the bank, Khoja insisted that surely his company was the sort of client that they would be eager to do business with and that they should welcome his business and support it rather than seek to reject him. But that wasn't how they saw it. They told him that his account wasn't mutually beneficial and they terminated the relationship. Since then, he's moved on to another financial institution.
He hopes that Congress is eventually going to act to make some federal changes in this area so that it isn't such a challenge for people to conduct business in this economy space.
Pics:
TheSmokingBud via herb.co/2017/08/11/cannabis-green-rush/
via Massroots.com
via FinancialTribune.com
Sources:
https://www.law.com/therecorder/sites/therecorder/2017/12/28/cannabis-industry-lawyer-raises-questions-after-his-bank-terminates-account/
http://www.greenbridgelaw.com/
https://www.massroots.com/news/dumpster-diving-for-weed/
http://www.thenorthernlight.com/2017/10/19/umpqua-bank-to-close-local-companys-account-for-confusion-over-hemp/
https://financialtribune.com/articles/world-economy/78255/cryptocurrencies-are-affecting-real-economy
http://www.statesmanjournal.com/story/money/business/2015/12/24/best-kept-banking-secret-marijuana-industry/76727296/
http://observer.com/2017/09/marijuana-cryptocurrency-blockchain/
Related Posts:
Hemp Clothing Company Faces Financial Ordeal After Bank Closes Its Account Over Cannabis Confusion
2016 Cannabis Sales Surpass $6.7 Billion
https://steemit.com/cannabis/@doitvoluntarily/2016-cannabis-sales-surpass-usd6-7-billion