FILE - In this Sept. 18, 2012 file photo a caregiver picks out a marijuana bud for a patient at a marijuana dispensary in Denver. Pot smokers in Colorado were the biggest winners in the vote that legalized the drug. Now state regulators are working out the details of exactly how to tax it, so the benefits are shared statewide in the form of increased revenue. A state panel meets Thursday to draft final recommendations based on the voter-approved marijuana legalization question that asked for excise taxes up to 15 percent to fund school construction.

Colorado Springs pot shop owners guilty of not paying $3.1 million in taxes

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By Kirk Mitchell

The owners of a prosperous, but unlicensed, Colorado Springs marijuana business called the Lazy Lion confessed in court that he did not pay $3.1 million in federal taxes as he should have, authorities say.

Andrew C. Poarch, 31, pleaded guilty last week to filing a false federal income tax return, according to a news release by U.S. Attorney Jason Dunn and IRS Criminal Investigation Special Agent in Charge Steven Osborne.

Poarch and his wife opened a marijuana business approximately in January of 2013, according to the news release from Jeffrey Dorschner, Dunn’s spokesman.

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