October 20, 2026
A federal grand jury in Portland has indicted Rosa Cazares, chief executive of the Oregon dispensary chain La Mota, on eight counts of willfully failing to pay over federal payroll taxes. The U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Oregon announced the indictment on October 15. Prosecutors say $1,542,413 in withheld taxes went unpaid over eight straight quarters, from March 2020 through December 2021.
An indictment is an allegation, and Cazares is presumed innocent. But the La Mota CEO indictment follows years of tax liens and vendor lawsuits against the chain's owners. For companies selling to Oregon dispensaries, that payment history is the bigger story.
The charges cover "trust fund" taxes: the federal income, Social Security, and Medicare taxes an employer withholds from paychecks and must send to the IRS each quarter. According to the indictment, Cazares oversaw the finances of La Mota, LLC and 503 Staffing LLC, a payroll company that handled the chain's employees, and didn't pay those taxes over for either one.
Each quarter is a separate count under 26 U.S.C. § 7202. Each count carries up to five years in prison, plus fines and restitution. Cazares's co-owner and longtime partner, Aaron Mitchell, is not named in the indictment, and the U.S. Attorney's Office did not respond when asked whether he is under investigation, Willamette Week reported.
Suppliers have been in court too. As of March 2023, Cazares, Mitchell, and their entities had been sued 30 times in Oregon circuit courts since 2017, over more than $1.7 million in unpaid bills by the paper's count. They included Buddies, a vape and flower company ($717,000 in product, later settled), and the gummy maker Drops ($390,000). "It's really easy to run a successful business when you don't pay bills to vendors you buy from," Buddies' Colin Hobbs told the paper.
La Mota is best known outside the industry for a political scandal. In 2023, Secretary of State Shemia Fagan resigned after it came out that she had a paid consulting contract with a La Mota affiliate while her office audited Oregon's cannabis regulator.
Since 2023, the OLCC has required every marijuana retailer to produce a Department of Revenue certificate of tax compliance to get, renew, or transfer a license. A retailer that owes back taxes can still get one if it has filed its returns and stays on an approved payment plan.
The certificate covers state and local taxes only. The OLCC says federal taxes are not evaluated, so the federal charges fall outside that check. Cannabis lawyer Vince Sliwoski has guessed that La Mota "probably reached a deal on payment plan" with the state, and wrote in August that a default on those plans could change things.
The warning signs were public. In La Mota's case, the tax liens and the supplier lawsuits piled up over the same years, and both were on the record well before this indictment. A lien search before extending terms on a large order costs far less than chasing a six-figure invoice in circuit court.
Oregon is a hard market to collect in. State forecasters expect lower prices and stagnant demand, and marijuana sales revenue fell every year from 2022 to 2025. Our read is that credit terms set when the market was growing deserve another look across your Oregon accounts.
A license is not a credit rating. La Mota kept more than two dozen Oregon dispensaries open through all of this. The OLCC rule tests state tax compliance at renewal, not whether a retailer pays its suppliers.
This is reporting on a criminal case and public records, not legal or credit advice. Talk to counsel before changing terms with a specific account.
What is La Mota's CEO charged with? Rosa Cazares is charged with eight counts of willfully failing to collect, account for, and pay over federal payroll taxes, one for each quarter from March 2020 through December 2021. The total is $1,542,413.
Is Aaron Mitchell charged? No. Mitchell, La Mota's co-owner, is not named in the indictment, though he and his LLCs received more than $7.9 million in state tax liens this summer.
Can La Mota keep its dispensary licenses? Oregon ties retail license renewals to a state certificate of tax compliance, which a retailer can get on an approved payment plan. Federal taxes are not part of that certificate.
Has Cazares responded? Coverage of the indictment through October 19 included no response from Cazares or an attorney. She is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.
When a dispensary's taxes go unpaid, its vendors are often the next ones waiting on a check. See verified, owner-level contacts for Oregon dispensaries, refreshed weekly. Free preview at holdenleads.com.
Holden Leads
Dispensaries, cultivators, manufacturers, distributors and testing labs, cross-referenced weekly against official state regulatory databases and enriched with phone numbers, emails, websites, and social profiles. Stop manually hunting for contact info. Get the full list today.