BOSTON, MA – August 8, 2025 – Suffolk County Sheriff Steven Tompkins was indicted on charges of extortion under color of official right and arrested in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on Friday, August 8, 2025, according to court documents unsealed today. The allegations stem from Tompkins’s interactions with a cannabis company, referred to as Company A, which sought to open a retail dispensary in Boston.
In 2019, Company A applied for a dispensary license from the Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission (CCC). To meet the CCC’s Positive Impact Plan (PIP) requirement, Company A partnered with the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Department (SCSD). The SCSD agreed to screen and refer graduates of its re-entry program for employment at Company A’s retail store. This partnership was formalized in a September 2019 letter signed by Tompkins and submitted to the CCC in March 2020. The CCC approved Company A’s license in March 2021 and renewed it in 2021, 2022, and 2023, with the SCSD partnership cited in each renewal application.
Court documents allege that beginning in mid-2020, as Company A prepared for an initial public offering (IPO), Tompkins pressured a company executive, identified as Individual A, to provide him with pre-IPO stock. Company A was seeking multimillion-dollar investments from institutional and high net-worth investors, not small individual investors. Tompkins allegedly reminded Individual A of his role in supporting Company A’s licensing efforts. Individual A reportedly feared that Tompkins could use his position as Sheriff to disrupt the SCSD partnership, potentially jeopardizing the dispensary license and the IPO timeline.
In October 2020, Company A requested an updated partnership letter from Tompkins for its license renewal. Within a month, after alleged continued pressure, Tompkins acquired a pre-IPO interest in Company A stock. In November 2020, Tompkins wired $50,000 from his retirement account to an account controlled by Individual A, purchasing approximately 28,883 shares at $1.73 per share. After a reverse stock split, Tompkins held approximately 14,417 shares at $3.46 per share.
By mid-2021, when Company A launched its IPO, the stock value rose to approximately $9.60 per share, valuing Tompkins’s shares at around $138,403. However, by May 2022, the stock value had fallen, reducing Tompkins’s investment to below his initial $50,000. Tompkins allegedly demanded a full refund, and Individual A agreed, issuing five checks between May 2022 and July 2023 to repay the $50,000. Some checks included memos labeled “loan repayment” and “[company] expense,” allegedly to conceal the nature of the payments.
The extortion charges carry a potential penalty of up to 20 years in prison, three years of supervised release, and a $250,000 fine. Sentences are determined by a federal district court judge based on U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and applicable statutes.
U.S. Attorney Foley and FBI Special Agent in Charge Docks announced the indictment. The Internal Revenue Service provided assistance. Assistant U.S. Attorneys John Mulcahy and Dustin Chao of the Public Corruption & Special Prosecutions Unit are prosecuting the case.
The allegations remain unproven, and Tompkins is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
Source: U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Massachusetts
