Boston Sheriff Allegedly Used Position to Extort $50K from Cannabis Company — Now He Faces Federal Charges By Sean Neumann

A Boston area sheriff faces up to 20 years in prison after he was indicted Friday, Aug. 8, on federal charges alleging he extorted a cannabis dispensary over the course of several years.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts announced the federal extortion charges against Suffolk County Sheriff Steven Tompkins, 67, alleging that he threatened to derail a national cannabis company’s local Boston business license if one of its top executives didn’t help him procure $50,000 worth of discounted stock in the business before it became publicly traded.

U.S. Attorney Leah B. Foley said in a statement that Tompkins is “alleged to have extorted an executive from a cannabis company, using his official position as Sheriff to benefit himself” in a scheme that began in mid-2020.

In order for the company to operate in Boston, state law required it to take part in its state rehabilitation program. To do so, the company worked in partnership with the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Office, which helped refer former inmates to work at the dispensary — which helped fulfill the state requirement.

According to the federal indictment filed Friday in the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts, Tompkins allegedly learned the company was looking to become a publicly traded company on the stock market and extorted his way into $50,000 worth of discounted stock prices by allegedly “reminding” a company executive that the sheriff’s office’s help was needed to keep the company in business. 

“It is alleged that [the company executive] believed and feared that Tompkins would use his official position as Sheriff to jeopardize [the company’s] partnership with the [sheriff’s office] and thus imperil both the dispensary license for [the company], as well as the timing of the IPO,” the Justice Department wrote in a news release Friday announcing the indictment.

Tompkins’ $50,000 investment netted him 28,883 shares of discounted company stock. At the stock’s height, the sheriff’s investment rose up to $138,403. But when the stock dipped in May 2022, and Tompkins began losing money on his investment, the Justice Department alleges the sheriff demanded a full refund on his $50,000 investment.

“Despite the decrease in the value of Tompkins’s investment, [the company executive] agreed to Tompkins’s demands for full repayment of $50,000,” according to the Justice Department.

The federal extortion charge against Tompkins carries “a sentence of up to 20 years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of $250,000,” the Justice Department said.

Ted E. Docks, a Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Division, said in a statement that the allegations against Tompkins are “beyond disappointing.”

“We believe what the Sheriff saw as an easy way to make a quick buck on the sly is clear cut corruption under federal law,” Docks said.