Connecticut Files $2.5M Lawsuit Over Fraudulent Cannabis License-for-Sale Scheme

Connecticut officials are seeking a $2.5 million judgment against the company MAKECTBETTER LLC; its principal, Michael Tedesco; and its affiliate, Zafir Iqbal, for allegedly defrauding convenience stores and smoke shops with false promises of a cannabis retail license.

Attorney General William Tong (D) filed the lawsuit in the Hartford Superior Court and is asking the court to freeze the defendants’ assets, the attorney general’s office announced on Monday.

The alleged cannabis license-for-sale scheme included forged Department of Consumer Protection (DCP) documents and targeted at least 35, and as many as 70, Connecticut businesses, the lawsuit says.

“This was a brazen scam to extract tens of thousands of dollars from Connecticut retailers based on false promises and forged documents. But let’s be clear — no one can pretend to be an agent of the Office of the Attorney General and get away with it. We’re suing and moving to freeze $2.5 million in assets based on the unassailable evidence in our case, and the extreme lawlessness of their misconduct.” — AG Tong, in a statement

The defendants allegedly first initiated the scheme in 2024, targeting the owner of Grab ‘N Go Mart in New Haven and New Milly Smoke Shop in New Milford. The suit claims Tedesco told the owner he knew state government officials and was authorized to sell cannabis retailer licenses under a fictional state “pilot program,” and provided forged documents purportedly from an associate attorney general in exchange for $50,000 ($25,000 per store).

“Even more egregiously, Defendants created an email account falsely purporting to belong to Associate Attorney General Arenas, to which Defendants maintained access and from which they sent emails on behalf of the State in furtherance of their scheme,” the lawsuit says.