An Illinois dispensary chain's co-founder just traded his cannabis license for a prison sentence

David Berger, who co-founded the Ivy Hall dispensary chain and once held an 18% stake in the company, was sentenced to a year in federal prison on July 1 for money laundering and structuring — deliberately breaking up cash deposits to dodge federal reporting rules. He'd already resigned from Ivy Hall in March and had his state cannabis operator license terminated.

The scheme ran roughly six months starting in late 2020: Berger took drug proceeds from a Mexican trafficker named Oswaldo Espinosa, used the cash to book 18 private jet charters, and paid for them with his own American Express card while feeding the drug money into ATMs in smaller deposits. His cut was $3,000 a flight — about $54,000 total. His attorney's defense, that Berger was just helping a friend book flights with no direct contact with the trafficker, didn't move federal judge Jorge Alonso, who told him plainly: "the motive is his greed."

On top of the year behind bars — which starts October 5 — Berger owes $253,000 in restitution and a $10,000 fine. Ivy Hall itself, which runs 10 dispensaries across Illinois, isn't accused of wrongdoing as a company; this is Berger's personal exposure from years before the sentencing, unwound through a federal structuring case.

It's a reminder that state licensing doesn't insulate an operator from what happens to the people who hold the license. A co-founder's federal case can shadow a multi-store brand long after he's off the cap table — worth remembering the next time due diligence on a retail partner stops at the storefront.