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Source: The Record, Stockton, Calif.迷你倉最平Dec. 14--STOCKTON -- Stockton businessman Matthew Davies was ordered Friday by a U.S. District Court judge to surrender himself to a federal prison on March 3 and serve a five-year sentence for his role in manufacturing medical marijuana and distributing it through multiple dispensaries in Stockton and Sacramento.Davies, 36, likely will spend his time performing dairy farm work at a minimum-security facility in Lompoc. He pleaded guilty in June to federal drug charges dating back to 2010.His sentencing and upcoming prison time mark the conclusion of a three-year saga that has pitted federal drug laws against state-approved laws that allow for medical marijuana sales, Davies said, describing his operations as being "under the letter of California law."Davies said he "takes full responsibility for his actions" but maintains that he believed his businesses were clean. He paid more than $1 million to advisers, lawyers and auditors to keep it that way, he said.On the other side, U.S. Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner said Davies and his partners were building a $10 million "marijuana empire" in a short amount of time and opened their businesses for sheer profit. Wagner said some of Davies' operations underreported income, and that even though he reported a $37,500 salary over 18 months, significantly more money was taken and reinvested to expand his medical marijuana businesses."He keeps saying he made ($37,500). We just disagree," Wagner said. "He has spent a lot of time and money with advisers portraying himself as not having made any money, but he was building a chain of marijuana businesses that were setting up for a lucrative future."Wagner didn't provide specifics, only that $160,000 was seized during the investigation. Otherwise, he said he wasn't interested in a public debate with Davies over the money trail.Davies this week has opened up about his dispensaries, which include the Stockton-based Central Valley Caregivers Cooperative and four others. In an interview with The Record, he described himself as a businessman who loves Stockton and deeply cares how the public here perceives him.His position: He is an educated businessman who partook in an industry that could help patients get medicine. He thought the business was shielded by the Obama administration's guidelines, outlined in a memo stating federal prosecutors would not go after medical marijuana dispensaries in states that allow them.When the drug charges were levied against him, he said he was "whipsawed.""First thing I want to say is, I love this town and I'm going to live here for the next 50 years. I care deeply what this town thinks about me, and I want people to know the whole story," Davies said. "I want people to see me as a great guy, as a great husband and father. I didn't believe I was doing anything wrong."Still, he said, he is accepting of his sentence. Taking his case to a federal court trial was a non-starter, because the jury would have been instructed that there is no such thing as legal marijuana sales under federal laws. A five-year sentence was the best option, he said."I take complete responsibility for my actions," said the father of two young girls, Rowan, 2, and Rebecca, 1. "If this went to trial, they'd ask, 'Did you sell marijuana?' My answer is 'yes,' so that's it."Davies, whose father is Stockton businessman Bruce Davies, said he was prosecuted because his business became large scale an迷你倉 because he has a master's degree. The feds don't want smart businessmen to invest in medical marijuana nonprofit groups, he said. His businesses generated $10 million in revenue over a year and a half, he said, and that meant heavy scrutiny.He didn't get rich, he said, drawing only a $37,500 salary for himself over that time and roughly $30,000 in salary to his wife, Molly. The rest went into the large overhead of operating a medical marijuana business, he said. The companies showed a $300,000 profit, according to Davies, which equates to a 3 percent reserve fund that is allowable under nonprofit group guidelines."I was labeled as a 'genius' for growing the business so quickly and as an idiot who couldn't do that much business without getting money back for myself," he said. "I was scheduled to make $75,000 a year, which is commensurate with a nonprofit of this size. The CEO of Goodwill makes $250,000 a year because it's commensurate with that nonprofit organization. That is allowed."His case is different than that of Hayward man Winslow Norton, Davies said. In that case, police seized $600,000, fancy cars and real estate in relation to a $50 million-plus operation, according to the Contra Costa Times.Davies said his company paid $500,000 in taxes and employed 50 people at an average of $15 an hour, wages he said are strong for the retail sales industry. Investigators never found large sums of cash, hidden bank accounts or other signs of a lucrative business, he said."They didn't find nothing like that with me. I was in 100 percent compliance," he said.What investigators did find was the $160,000 referred to by Wagner.Davies explains that amount as $100,000 in an account reserved for legal fees, $20,000 that was to be used for employee payroll and $40,000 for operating expenses.Davies said he paid his lawyers $250,000 for his defense.Wagner said California laws regarding medical marijuana are more murky than the media and public realize. He said his office doesn't have the time or resources to chase after every operation.Davies became the target of an investigation after a burglary was reported at one of his grow operations inside a large east Stockton warehouse, not because federal prosecutors sought him out, Wagner said."He knew what he was doing was in violation of federal law. He gambled that we wouldn't care," Wagner said. "Mr. Davies was pretty active in the marijuana area in terms of a business model. He even purchased a dispensary in Elk Grove where police had arrested the previous owner. He was building an empire."Wagner went further, saying a five-year sentence is rather lenient in large-scale drug cases. He said his office is trying to prosecute cases such as this in a fair way because he knows there's a level of confusion with what is and isn't legal under state versus federal laws.Davies said five years is "a lifetime" for a man with a wife and young kids. He's hopeful that his time in prison won't be detrimental to his daughters."How old were you when you had your first memory?" Davies asked. "Around 4 years old? My hope is that I can do this sentence, and then I can come home and move forward."Contact reporter Keith Reid at (209) 546-8257 or kreid@recordnet.com. Visit his blog at .recordnet.com/lodiblog. Follow him on Twitter @KReidme.Copyright: ___ (c)2013 The Record (Stockton, Calif.) Visit The Record (Stockton, Calif.) at .recordnet.com Distributed by MCT Information Servicesmini storage