Where Pot Entrepreneurs Go When the Banks Just Say No<br />But everyone in the business can recall one or another infamous crime — clerks forced to open a safe at gunpoint in a dispensary on East Colfax; the murder of a security guard in Aurora —<br />and some spectacular heists have gone largely unreported, as when thieves broke through the roof of one grow and then cut open its safe.<br />Seefried says that about three-quarters of Safe Harbor’s marijuana-selling clients pay less than $1,000 a month per<br />account, considerably less than they would pay at banks, where monthly account fees are said to start at $1,500.<br />Elsberg walked into Behzadzadeh’s office and over to the satchel, which is about the size of a small purse — Elsberg,<br />who is 37, likes to call it Behzadzadeh’s “murse,” for man purse — and removed six bundles of bills.<br />“If we had bank accounts,” Behzadzadeh said, turning serious, “it’d be much easier.”<br />Growing and selling marijuana are, like using it, legal under Colorado law.<br />Behzadzadeh had agreed to pay $5,850 for the trim, and while Elsberg would collect at least<br />that much in cash at his first two stops, he liked to separate the money coming in from the money going out.<br />Six banks and credit unions in six states will begin taking on customers this month, including<br />a credit union in Colorado to serve the customers that Safe Harbor no longer can.<br />A division of the credit union, Safe Harbor Private Banking, provides checking accounts<br />expressly for the marijuana industry, in clear violation of federal law.
