The Dispensary With More Skeletons Than a Spirit Halloween
F’nAround Exclusive: The Dispensary With More Skeletons Than a Spirit Halloween
You’ve probably seen the glowing press about Chicago’s shiny “LGBTQ & minority-owned” cannabis shop, Sway in Lakeview. It was a feel good headline: ribbon cuttings, smiling faces, hashtags about equity.
CBS News Chicago even ran a piece making it look like the Emerald City of weed just landed on Broadway. https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/sway-cannabis-dispensary-lgbtq-minority-owned/
But if you’ve been F’nAround with us for any length of time, you know now: “Follow the licenses and the money, not the press ops. Ribbon cuttings just show the corrupt politicians…”
So we did.
And shock of shocks the same state that hides more skeletons than a Spirit Halloween inside an abandoned Kmart quietly changed something in the licensing records.
As of last week, the Illinois Department of Financial & Professional Regulation (IDFPR) now lists this “independent” dispensary as a DBA of a different cannabis group entirely.
Could it be a mistake?
A clerical hiccup?
A stray intern hitting the wrong dropdown menu?
Sure. It could be.
But it also comes at the exact same moment:
The Attorney General’s PAC division sits on a FOIA PAC complaint response we filed showing verifiable felony admissions the state ignored pending a binding decision.
The DOJ escalated and an FBI corruption probe got activated due to ignored federal offenses by the state of Illinois, their regulators, and elected officials.
IDFPR still refuses to release records to the AG on “privacy” grounds even though case law says criminal coverups ≠ privacy.
We’ve got more watchdog filings activated by federal regulators but they aren’t relevant here.
Oh, and in the middle of that, anonymous tips to us from inside the industry start whispering about shady financing and supply agreements tied to the very same brand. We requested those agreements via FOIA. Denied.
Coincidence? Maybe.
Pattern? Looks a lot like it.
So while the ribbon’s being cut, and the cameras are rolling, and the hashtags are flying, the paper trail in Springfield tells a different story.
We’re not saying crimes were committed.
We’re not saying who’s pulling the strings.
We’re just showing you the receipts that nobody else wants you to see.
Because if Illinois really cared about equity, it wouldn’t let ownership vanish behind DBAs like a bad magic trick.
Keep watching. We’ve got more coming.
All Assholes. No Excuses.
F’nAround Media
All information here is drawn from publicly available state records and protected journalistic sources. Allegations remain allegations unless proven in a court of law. Check the state site for yourself…
