Green Thumb Industries stands as one of the behemoths of the nationwide marijuana market, with more than half a billion dollars in total revenues last year and an estimated market capitalization of $5 billion, according to recent financial reports filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
State records show that during its rise, GTI’s executives and affiliates have spread cash to a number of politicians as well as a political action committee that were instrumental in the marijuana legalization effort. The company also hired a succession of lobbyists and consultants with deep ties to then-House Speaker Michael Madigan, records show.
Green Thumb’s founder and CEO, Ben Kovler, is a private-equity manager whose ancestors started the Jim Beam whiskey empire a century ago.