The owner of a CBD store in Vermont is accused of bilking hemp farmers and writing bad checks.
Douglas Bell, the owner of CBD-Vermont in Waterbury, pleaded not guilty to seven felony counts of theft of service, two felony counts of false pretenses, two misdemeanor counts of writing a bad check and a misdemeanor count of petty larceny and a misdemeanor count of false pretenses.
A state police officer who accessed Bell’s bank records in April with a subpoena said Bell contracted with farmers despite having insufficient funds to pay those contracts, and that he owed one farm more than $157,000, the newspaper reported.
Bell faces a maximum sentence of 120 years in prison if convicted on all counts.