Marijuana ‘theme park’ was scam to make man $600,000, feds say. ‘Bud and breakfast’

Nearly two dozen investors were duped by a salesman’s “wildly optimistic” promises about a marijuana “theme park” in Alaska, according to federal prosecutors. Those promises cost them more than $600,000.

Brian Keith Corty’s proposed cannabis theme park resort — dubbed a “Bud and Breakfast” — caused 22 people to invest thousands of dollars into the venture, prosecutors said.

Investors were misled into believing the resort would be located at a lodge Corty had bought along a highway near Salcha, about a 30-mile drive southeast from Fairbanks in central Alaska, according to prosecutors.

There, Corty told investors that guests would enjoy marijuana on the premises and gaze at the northern lights while staying overnight in rooms with glass ceilings, prosecutors said. Investors also believed cannabis would be grown, cultivated and sold to customers at the resort.

Corty promised the business would make millions of dollars yearly when it was up and running, according to prosecutors. He projected nearly $4 million in profits during the first year, more than $13 million the second year and more than $23 million the third year, court documents state.

“It is unclear how anyone could project that a lodge selling rooms and marijuana in Salcha, Alaska, could possibly generate the returns he promised,” prosecutors wrote in court documents.

To raise money, Corty sold investors units in Ice Fog Holdings LLC, a company “purportedly” created for medical and recreational marijuana production and sales, according to prosecutors.

Ultimately, Corty used the investors’ money to pay off personal debt and refinance his house, according to prosecutors.

“Corty simply lived off of investor funds while continuing to lie to them,” they wrote in a sentencing memorandum.

His scheme that spanned from 2017 to 2020 has now landed him in federal prison, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Alaska announced in a May 3 news release.

A judge sentenced Corty, 53, of Delta Junction, to two years in prison on May 3 for a conspiracy to commit wire fraud after entering a guilty plea, the U.S. attorney’s office said.

He must also pay more than $580,000 in restitution, according to prosecutors.

“Mr. Corty manipulated unknowing investors by promising millions in proceeds and used their money for his personal gain,” U.S. Attorney S. Lane Tucker said in a statement.

Federal defenders representing Corty didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from McClatchy News.

Ahead of sentencing, his legal counsel contended he “did not set out to just steal people’s money and live off the proceeds. He had a real plan, with real intentions, and a true hope that it would all work out in the end.”

Charges against wife to be dropped

A year ago, Corty was indicted in the case along with his wife, the U.S. attorney’s office said last year.

However, as part of the terms of his plea agreement, the government agreed to dismiss the charges against his wife during his sentencing, court records state.

In his plea agreement, Corty agreed he was the “organizer and manager” of the marijuana theme park scheme.

An attorney appointed to represent his wife didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on May 6.

Ahead of sentencing, prosecutors wrote Corty “is clearly capable of earning an honest living” and described him as “a good salesman.”

They said that while “he also has significant health and physical problems and provides care for his wife,” the “health concerns should not entitle him to much of a break here.”

According to Corty’s legal counsel, his proposed cannabis resort was a failed dream.

Corty hoped it could be a place “where visitors to Alaska could stay on site, purchase and consume marijuana, eat fine food, and enjoy the vast wilderness experience that interior Alaska is famous for,” his counsel wrote in a sentencing memorandum.

“He thought he could make his dream come true. However, despite his best, persistent, and indeed even illegal actions, he failed miserably,” the sentencing memo states.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, “things only spiraled” for Corty and his business plans struggled, according to his legal counsel.

FBI Special Agent in Charge Rebecca Day, of the agency’s Anchorage field office, said in a statement that “Corty lured investors with promises of prosperity and guaranteed returns, when in truth, he diverted the investor money to fund his own lifestyle.”

Meanwhile, his attorneys wrote that Corty and his wife never lived lavishly, that he “wants to make things right for the people he has harmed,” and argued in support of a noncustodial sentence for him in the sentencing memo.

Corty’s prison sentence will be followed by supervised release, according to prosecutors.

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