He told the Globe Spotlight Team in 2019 that he had tapped his network and used his know-how to guide 40 to 50 proposed pot shops through the state’s regulatory scheme. But Perullo did more than act as a consultant: He made the jump to marijuana executive, and is now cofounder and president of Ascend Wellness Holdings, which operates 44 marijuana shops in seven states including Massachusetts, according to its website.
Prosecutors allege that in 2020 Tompkins forced Individual A to sell him $50,000 in stock in his company before it went public. Tompkins’s annual financial disclosures, which are required by state law, make it plain Perullo is the businessman described in the indictment: in 2020 the sheriff disclosed a new investment in a company named “Cannanovus LLC,” with a Boston address of 137 Lewis Wharf.
That address in Boston’s North End is the longtime home of Perullo’s consulting firms and other business ventures. Perullo is the lone person listed on corporate records for the company “Cananovus,” also at 137 Lewis Wharf.
The company was incorporated on April 20, 2018, an apparent nod to the slang term 4/20, which means to consume marijuana. (On Tompkins’s disclosure form, the company’s name is spelled with two n’s; in Perullo’s incorporation papers, it is spelled with one n.)
“Cananovus” appears to be a portmanteau of the words “cannabis” and “Novus,” the name of one of Perullo’s consulting firms.
Tompkins again listed the same investment in his 2021 financial disclosure. But the following year, Tompkins made no mention of owning the stock, which again matches the timeline laid out in the indictment.
Prosecutors allege that after the stock’s share price tanked, dropping the value of Tompkins’s investment from a high of around $138,000 to well below $50,000, the sheriff around late 2021 demanded that “Individual A” repay his $50,000 initial investment. The indictment included partially redacted copies of five checks chronicling these reimbursements.
Perullo is not accused of any wrongdoing; instead he is portrayed in the indictment as the victim of extortion.
Tompkins has not responded to repeated requests for comment since his arrest last week in Florida by the FBI. He is facing two counts of extortion under color of law, charges that carry a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
Prosecutors say he agreed to have his office screen former inmates for potential jobs at Ascend’s store near TD Garden, part of a “positive impact plan” that helped the company get a cannabis retail license. His control over that deal gave Tompkins leverage to pressure Ascend for the investment opportunity and later to demand his money back, according to prosecutors.
Tompkins was released on $200,000 bond and must report to US District Court in Boston by Friday.
Perullo has not responded to phone messages and emails seeking comment since Friday. A spokesperson for Ascend Wellness Holdings also did not respond to a phone message seeking comment.
Abner Kurtin, executive chairman and founder of Ascend, declined to discuss the indictment when reached by phone. Kurtin, who once worked for the Baupost Group, a well-known Boston hedge fund, denied any previous knowledge of the allegations.
“I can tell you I’ve never even met Sheriff Tompkins,” Kurtin said.
Perullo featured prominently in the Spotlight Team’s 2019 series “The hidden titans of pot‚” which found that large national companies were dominating the Massachusetts market by skirting regulations intended to limit them to a maximum of three stores in the state. The series described Perullo as one of the state’s most influential powerbrokers in the nascent pot industry who helped companies pursue licenses in apparent excess of the ownership caps.
Perullo also helped recruit former political clients to work in the business. They included Tompkins’s predecessor, former Suffolk County sheriff Andrea Cabral, whom Perullo enlisted to serve as chief executive of Ascend Massachusetts. Cabral is no longer with the company.
Last week, Cabral told the Globe that she was not familiar with the allegations against Tompkins, who has described her as one of his closest friends.
Tompkins’s troubles may go beyond the federal indictment. He could face additional scrutiny from the state ethics commission for failing to file conflict of interest disclosures related to his stock ownership.
State law forbids public employees from having private business relationships with individuals they interact with as part of their official duties. Tompkins had a financial stake in a company while having direct influence over the sheriff’s office partnership the firm needed to renew its license.
A separate section of state law requires public officials to file a written conflict-of-interest disclosure with the ethics commission when their official powers — such as the authority to end a partnership — could be perceived as giving them undue influence.
On Tuesday, Tompkins resigned as chair of the Board of Trustees at Roxbury Community College. In a statement, Governor Maura Healey called his resignation “the right decision.”
Healey has not called on Tompkins to resign as sheriff, saying Monday that the allegations against him were “certainly serious” but adding, “I need to know more.”
Danny McDonald and Matt Stout of the Globe staff contributed to this story.
Andrew Ryan can be reached at andrew.ryan@globe.com or via the encrypted messaging app Signal at @andewryan.61