By Ed Williams and Wufei Yu, Searchlight New Mexico |
December 23, 2020
Wufei Yu/Searchlight New Mexico
Richard Yue, one of the workers in Bryan Peng s New Mexico workforce, setting up greenhouses at the Big Buddha Farms in Oklahoma
MONTEREY PARK, Calif. Irving Lin, a jovial entrepreneur in his late 60’s, wanted to share a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, a near-miraculous way out of the economic devastation wrought on Southern California’s Chinese communities by the pandemic: the gift of marijuana.
“We are making a fortune in Oklahoma, and you can too,” Lin, speaking in Mandarin, told a crowd of 30 potential investors gathered for a PowerPoint presentation at a Chinese cultural center on Dec. 5. The return on investment is as high as 1,200 percent, Lin explained eagerly. Finance one greenhouse, and you’ll walk away with $300,000. Three greenhouses will make you a millionaire.