Michael Strahan and Wiz Khalifa Facing Lawsuit Over Their Cannabis Company

Rapper/cannabis enthusiast Wiz Khalifa and former NFL star Michael Strahan are facing a lawsuit from one of the co-owners of their cannabis company, Khalifa Kush. The court documents do not list the amount the plaintiff is seeking in damages. However, he claims that Strahan and Khalifa stole more than $100,000,000 in assets by not including him in business dealings.

The Blast obtained court documents that list Carlos Arias, the director and managing agent for Cuzzi Consulting, Inc., as the plaintiff. In the documents, he claims he was denied interest from the company’s proceeds. This includes a cannabis licensing deal valued at $20,000,000. Arias says that the defendants “pilfered more than $100,000,000 in assets from Nominal Defendants.”

The claims also include “breach of fiduciary duty, aiding and abetting fiduciary breaches, conversion, corporate waste, tortious breach of an express or implied agreement, unjust enrichment, money had and received, professional negligence, civil conspiracy, and declaratory judgment arising out of Defendants’ wrongful conduct concerning the usurpation and misappropriation of assets from Nominal Defendants KKE USA and the Khalifa Kush Joint Venture.”

Arias claims that he had an agreement with Khalifa and Strahan to include him in the brand. However, he says that the defendants unjustly breached the contract and cut him out of the profits. The plaintiff then called the partnership a “civil conspiracy” against him.

Khalifa is a big name in the weed game, often mentioning cannabis in his music. “Rolling Papers” and “Rolling Papers II” are examples of albums that champion cannabis culture. He also had a mobile game, “Wiz Khalifa Weed Farm,” that centered around growing cannabis and managing a successful farm.

Once legalization began to materialize in multiple states, Khalifa became one of the first celebrities to introduce his own strain. He collaborated with Cookie Co. 415, a medical marijuana dispensary based in San Francisco, to introduce Khalifa Kush (KK). Khalifa said that KK was cultivated based on his personal “taste and high preferences.”

According to the court documents, Arias claims that Khalifa made “little to no money” on his collaboration with Cookie Co. 415. One reason was California’s then-prohibition of recreational marijuana limiting his ability to market, sell and profit from his signature strain. Although Arias also claims that KK raised Khalifa’s profile in the cannabis community. He said that the partnership with Strahan and his company was “partially responsible” for businesses wanting to leverage Khalifa’s standing in the community.