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Entourage Effect and Shield Compliance Join the ICLC

Blog Post

Having just celebrated its one year anniversary, and hard on the heels of recent announcements that First Citizens Bank and Safe Harbor Financial had joined the ICLC (see here and here), the ICLC is pleased to announce three additional new participants. One of these is a commercial bank. In accordance with our commitment to our bank participants, they are not identified outside the Community unless they specifically authorize it, as was the case with our First Citizens blog. 

The other 2 new participants, Entourage Effect Capital (EEC) and Shield Compliance, are each well-known and respected within the cannabis industry. Their participation will enhance the ICLC’s potential value to its participants, enriching the breadth and depth of relevant and accretive cannabis industry experience, skillsets, contacts and perspectives available to them. 

As contrasted with the proactive outreach involved in recruiting the ICLC’s early participants, contact with the ICLC was initiated by these and most of our other recently reported new participants, a development we find an encouraging reflection of the market’s recognition of the ICLC’s relevance. 

Established in 2014, and having made more than 70 investments, EEC is one of the longest standing and most experienced cannabis investment firms. Its team has developed a broad and deep network over the past ten years, and EEC has indicated that it looks forward to sharing contacts and related opportunities with ICLC participants. Multiple senior EEC team members come from decades-long careers in leveraged finance and their expertise has proven critical to EEC and its partners in navigating past debt financings. 

Since 2014, Shield Compliance has been seeking to transform how financial institutions serve the legal cannabis market, setting the standard for compliance excellence in cannabis banking. Its purpose-built BSA/AML compliance management software solution sits behind the financial institution to simplify compliance, automate processes across multiple data sources, create efficiencies, unlock new revenue, and scale operations and includes time monitoring and comprehensive reporting capabilities. By enhancing the ability of its nearly 70 financial institution clients to achieve these objectives, Shield contributes to increasing the availability to the cannabis industry of normalized banking relationships, including lending.

For information about ICLC participation, please contact Steve Lenn (salenn@bmdllc.com) or Brandon Pauley (btpauley@bmdllc.com).


Trulieve Tax Announcement and the ICLC Growth Spurt

On March 12, leading cannabis tax lawyer James Mann made an extremely timely virtual presentation to ICLC participants regarding the announcement by Trulieve of its receipt of more than $100 million of tax refunds in connection with a challenge to what it owes under Section 280E of the Internal Revenue Code.

Another Big Move Out of the Shadows; First Citizens Bank, the nation’s 19th largest, poised to enter the Cannabis Market

A commentary on cannabis and hemp dated January 12, 2024 posted by First Citizens Bank on its website reflects the decision by the Bank to extend its very substantial hemp/CBD platform into the cannabis space.

A Closer Look at Cannabis

At the Nov. 30 Akron Roundtable event "A Closer Look at Cannabis," moderated by Andrew Meyer, deputy editor of news Ideastream Public Media, a varied group of panelists spoke about expected and potential outcomes and efforts of marijuana legalization.

Out of the Shadows - Cannabis Going Mainstream

BMD Phoenix Office Managing Partner, Stephen Lenn, recently discussed today's cannabis industry at an Akron Roundtable as part of their "Bringing it Home" series.

Institutional Cannabis Lenders Community Holds First Meeting

BMD Attorneys Stephen Lenn and Brandon Pauley have organized the Institutional Cannabis Lenders Community (ICLC), which is a community of institutional lenders include banks, credit unions, dedicated cannabis loan funds and family office/ultra-high net worth investors and are excited to announce that the group recently held its first meeting. The more than 20 participants in the ICLC, which was organized to enhance relationships among institutional cannabis lenders and provide forums for evolving best practices, include 4 of the major cannabis loan, more than a dozen banks and credit unions, and a cross section of other organizations that are involved in institutional cannabis finance activities.