SPRINGFIELD — A former state official who oversaw cannabis regulation policy was fined $100,000 for violating Illinois’ revolving-door ethics law after he left his supervisory position to work for a private cannabis company, according to a report released Friday from the state’s executive watchdog.
Bret Bender was deputy director for cannabis control for the Illinois Department of Financial & Professional Regulation from April 2019 to May 2022, then immediately began working for Ascend Wellness Holdings, which was subject to regulatory matters from the state, according to the executive inspector general’s report.
“(Bender’s) violation is unambiguous: He accepted employment with Ascend that the Ethics Act prohibited him from accepting,” the IG’s office said in the report. “While there is no evidence in the record of a premeditated quid pro quo arrangement or (Bender’s) prospective employment affecting his regulatory decisions, the timeline of events has an appearance of impropriety.”
The state’s Executive Ethics Commission fined Bender $100,000 for the violation. He is the second former official within Gov. JB Pritzker’s administration this month to be found in violation of the revolving-door ethics law. Earlier, the commission levied a $150,000 fine to Dr. Ngozi Ezike, the public face of Pritzker’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, for violating the measure when she left her job as director of the Illinois Department of Public Health in March 2022 to become president and CEO of Sinai Chicago hospital system.
The Tribune’s “Culture of Corruption” series last year detailed weaknesses in the state’s ethics oversight system, including that the vast majority of fines levied by the commission have come in just a handful of cases similar to those involving Ezike and now Bender.
State law bars high-ranking state officials from going to work for a vendor within one year of leaving government employment if the agency they worked for had contracts with that vendor totaling more than $25,000, or if the agency was involved with regulatory decisions involving the company.
According to the executive watchdog, Bender, while working as deputy director in IDFPR, “oversaw, supervised, reviewed, and approved site inspections” for Ascend’s Illinois subsidiary, including for inspections that occurred in December 2021, January 2022 and twice in April of that year.
In the year following his May 20, 2022, resignation from IDFPR, he received compensation from Ascend for $178,746.34 in regular pay, $19,494.54 in bonus pay and stock options with a grant price valuation of $53,623.90, the watchdog said.
The watchdog’s report also says Bender was aware of his obligations under the Illinois Ethics Act. Early in his interactions with Ascend, he sent a text message that read: “Sorry for the slow reply, but ethics laws prevent me from engaging in these talks on state time and an endless stream of phone calls this morning prohibited me from going off state time until just now.”
The watchdog noted Bender admitted violating the Ethics Act and appeared to cooperate with the executive inspector general’s investigation. Bender emphasized that his employment with Ascend was “specifically structured to preclude his involvement with Illinois-related matters by directing his efforts to a distinct geographical region.”
“Bender has a significant history in government services and is particularly committed to the formulation and implementation of sound public policy. He did not use his position in state government as a stepping stone to a pay day,” Bender’s lawyers wrote on his behalf in one of the report’s filings. “In fact, Bender was reluctant to leave government services, as he thoroughly enjoyed having a meaningful role in crafting laws and other policies that impact people’s lives.”
The report said there’s no evidence Bender’s violation involved any other state employees, had a material impact on state operations or resulted in regulatory decisions that should have been decided differently.
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