Gov. Wes Moore has finalized the creation of a blind trust that will prevent him from managing or knowing about his personal financial holdings — including a $2.5 million portfolio made up of ongoing investments in companies that pose potential conflicts between his interests and his job as Maryland’s chief executive.
Nearly half of Moore’s significant holdings are in Green Thumb Industries, a cannabis company that does business in Maryland, according to documents outlining the trust.
As the governor prepares to sign a bill that will create and regulate a recreational adult-use cannabis industry in Maryland, Moore holds 170,730 shares of the firm that were recently valued at $1.17 million, the documents show.
The second-largest portion of Moore’s holdings is stock in Under Armour, the Baltimore-based athletic apparel maker, which benefits from state funds and programs. Moore holds 25,146 shares in the company, which are worth about $200,000.
Moore, as a Democratic candidate for governor last year, previously disclosed his investments and roles as a board member for both companies. A former investment banker, bestselling author and nonprofit organization leader, Moore also disclosed investments in more than two dozen other companies, including real estate holding firms and properties that he did not put in the blind trust.
He resigned from Green Thumb Industries’ board in March 2022 and from all other board positions, including at Under Armour, after he won a four-year term in November.
While the blind trust agreement was being developed, he recused himself in February from a Maryland Board of Public Works vote that extended a warehouse contract with Under Armour.
Moore developed the blind trust to avoid similar situations in the future in which he could face a conflict of interest, though he was not required to do so under state law. State regulations provide guidelines for such trusts, which are reviewed and approved by the State Ethics Commission, a five-member panel appointed by the governor. The current members were appointed before Moore took office.
The trust, approved Thursday by the ethics commission and released Monday by Moore’s office, prohibits Moore from knowing whether the trustee, the Baltimore investment management firm Brown Advisory, keeps or sells those and other assets.
Moore, who will make a $188,000 salary under the state budget that begins July 1, will be permitted to know only the amount of his overall income from the trust for filing personal income tax returns.
Any communication between him and the trustee must be in writing and submitted to the commission.
Those requirements will be more restrictive than those Moore’s predecessor, Republican Gov. Larry Hogan, operated under after he transitioned from wealthy businessman to governor in 2015.
Hogan declined to set up a certified blind trust, keeping ownership of his successful real estate business and other companies during his two terms. In an agreement approved by the ethics commission, he received updates from trustees who managed his assets. He wasn’t allowed to get involved in day-to-day operations, which were managed by his brother.
By creating a blind trust, Moore had to agree to a trustee “independent of and unassociated with the official or employee in both reality and appearance.” That means that Moore’s business associates and family members cannot control the trust.
The trust also has to be “well diversified” in that it may not be largely tied to companies or industries. For example, ethics rules indicate that if the assets exceed $350,000 in total — which Moore’s do — more than 20% cannot be held in a single security and more than 30% cannot be held in a single industry or economic sector.
If securities entering the trust exceed those thresholds, the trustee will sell them within 90 days, according to the trust agreement.
With 46% of Moore’s securities being Green Thumb Industries stock, that means the trustee may have to sell some of that stock to meet the threshold in the coming months.
Green Thumb Industries, which operates medical cannabis dispensaries in Maryland, is expected to be among the first group of businesses to participate in the state’s recreational industry.
Under a bill passed by the General Assembly, which Moore is expected to sign this month, medical cannabis businesses will be able to convert their licenses into new medical/recreational licenses by July 1.
Asked about Moore’s investment in the company and the pending industry expansion, Moore spokesman David Turner said the governor effectively “does not own” the shares anymore because of the blind trust.
“He is following the letter of the law set by the ethics commission,” Turner said. He said the governor was doing everything he could to “make sure that he’s working in the best interests of the state of Maryland.”
Beyond the Green Thumb Industries and Under Armour stocks that make up 54% of Moore’s holdings, he held thousands of other shares in companies and mutual funds for a portfolio worth $2.5 million, according to the list of his assets entering the trust.
That list, combined with an annual financial disclosure Moore filed just before a midnight Sunday deadline, paint the most detailed picture yet of the governor’s financial interests.
Moore’s disclosure report for calendar year 2022 shows he kept investments — and sometimes direct roles — in dozens of companies as he ran for governor.
Those included board positions with IAC Interactive Corp., which owns digital brands and media companies such as Dotdash Meredith (which publishes People and other magazines), and companies that had goals to invest in or acquire other companies.
While Moore resigned from those boards after the election, he kept shares in some of those companies — including 2,539 shares in IAC valued at just under $125,000, according to the trust documents.
He also mostly kept investments in 20 limited liability companies, listing he owned anywhere from less than 3% interest to up to 24% interest in firms that were valued in ranges such as “$1 million to $1,999,999? or “$2 million to $4,999,999.”
Information on those firms, such as their partners or business missions, is not typically available.
But unlike his disclosure report last year that revealed the existence of those investments, Moore’s new filing describes those firms as real estate holding companies in which he has a minority stake. They are operated through the Alliven Group, a New Jersey-based real estate acquisition, management and investment company, according to the new disclosure.
Of those 20 companies, Moore sold all of his stakes in four of them in 2022, with each sale earning him more than $100,000. The annual disclosure is not required to be more specific.
Four other companies Moore previously disclosed that he started and solely owned — including a production company and firms to collect his speaking and book revenues — he kept throughout 2022. He donated to a nonprofit organization his remaining interest in an education company, BridgeEdu, that he started but sold before running for governor.
The real estate holding companies and his other solely owned companies are not required to be in the trust because they are not able to be easily liquidated and because they don’t do business with the state of Maryland nor pose other conflicts with his job, according to administration officials.
That also includes Moore’s personal property, like the North Baltimore home he and his wife, Dawn Moore, paid for $2.3 million in 2017. The six-bedroom, six-bathroom estate is on the market for $2.75 million.
While the annual disclosure is Moore’s first as governor, Hogan also filed his final disclosure to cover his last year in office.
The Republican’s report is largely similar to his previous filings. In 2022, Hogan maintained sole ownership of The Hogan Group LLC, which in turn owns a collection of companies related to his family’s real estate business.
Though Moore reported receiving no gifts in 2022, Hogan’s list included a 95-year-old vodka and a Mongolian scarf from the ambassador from Mongolia, valued at $150 and $50, respectively, and a “golden Buddha statue” worth $150 whose donor is listed as “anonymous.”
The dozens of gifts also included two from Democratic President Joe Biden — a signed “thank you” letter valued at $10 and an “engraved silver tray commemorating infrastructure” worth $50.
