Secrets to SLO County marijuana mogul’s success, video

August 1, 2021

By KAREN VELIE

San Luis Obispo County’s marijuana mogul Helios Dayspring, who dreamed of being on the cover of Forbes Magazine as the richest man in California, touts his successes in a short video he created in 2017.

Last week, prosecutors charged Dayspring with paying thousands of dollars in bribes to then-San Luis Obispo Supervisor Adam Hill for favorable votes on his cannabis business interests and for tax fraud. Dayspring agreed to plead guilty to two felony offenses, pay $3.4 million in restitution to the IRS, and cooperate in the government’s ongoing investigation.

In another video, Dayspring’s partner Mike Siegfried claims they pay their taxes and operate legitimately.


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Helios is the canary. The one that sings and the one in the coal mine. Right now I’m enjoying the first trills of his tune, but they regard the obvious: the bumbling, bullying, bribed, bacchanalia and buffoonery of Adam Hill. There are more subtle, far more noxious toxins in this county. I long for those clarion notes from Helios (and others) that call out the insidious, far more toxic agents who truly poison this county.


A drug czar plain and simple. He states he has worked at this for 20 years, so prior to pot being legal he was a self proclaimed criminal. He works in the unregulated non-proven drug industry. To give you and idea why Phillip Morris and Johnson and Johnson haven’t gotten into this lucrative industry there are studies on the long-term toxic effects of cannabis. Just a criminal who associates with local criminals – politicians, judges, developers, community development directors, mayors and of course city managers. I give him credit he knew exactly how to grease the machine.


I will never defend that guy and hope he sees the inside of a jail cell for a very long time BUT weed has been medically legal in California since 1996, so one can work in the industry for 20 years legally under California law.


Helios is our local “Hunter”. Too bad our local politicians didn’t know how to paint.


Heidi Harmon’s campaign manager and Helios’ and Natural Healing Center’s Chief Operating Officer are the same person, Nick Andre, no idea how this isn’t more exposed


https://www.sanluisobispo.com/news/local/article238472288.html?fbclid=IwAR0VMCtLZj1qhqF-EaPiLtZqkzq2QqVv8dEagkJm4mYy440NxUpudzyJm-A


https://mustangnews.net/heidi-harmon-grassroots-victory/?fbclid=IwAR3TjZk19gGsocAgJbjce_lBsO3l6W5PffjU3-_RRIZFnJVX0oIUhs0Ko9Q


Bill Ostrander on 920 KVEC Dave Congalton’s show at 6 PM today talking about money corrupting local politics.


Is there a streaming link or a link to listen if I don’t have access to an AM radio?


While I’m posting, I saw Caldwell for Congress 2020 call out Dayspring and New Times/Tribune today as well.


https://www.facebook.com/CaldwellCongress/posts/584637529570784


It’s sad that he started the business through such dishonest means.. it will be a loss for the community, not a win, if NHC, for example, has to close down. I don’t know what the working relationship is between that business and its employees, but from the customer perspective, it is a good service.


If main issue is this ‘pay to play’ thing and his basically paying under the table to fast-track his various businesses into operation and squeeze out honest competitors then maybe we can offer those competitors that are willing to do things the proper way the chance to seek ownership of it?


Basically apply that to all of Helios’ different holdings (any that aren’t violating any, say, environmental impact issues that may have been ignored due to bribes) so that they just get divvied up amongst those that will operate them according to acceptable market practices instead of tearing everything down into vacant lots.


Ridiculous. It is a matter of fact that Helios’ actions squeezed out other companies to become the monopoly holder in the area. This is essentially saying it’s fine to build the empire on blood and lies as long as once you’re on the top, you play nice and pass over the company to your girlfriend, still massively benefitting from your highly illegal and immoral actions that got you there in the first place.


Didn’t say to transfer the company to his girlfriend. I suggested letting legit individuals who have no connection to Helios take it over instead of shutting it down.


I also didn’t say to hand over a business monopoly over to someone else. I suggested taking his various pot related businesses and allowing others to apply to take them over.. draw lots for them or something dunno.. don’t know the criteria. But if he beat out a bunch of people for property licenses, for example, let all those who had applied before, get reconsidered to take the location same as if he had never been around.. only now, they get the bonus of not having to start up a facility from scratch.