Mervyn Yan, who admitted to funneling millions of dollars to the Biden family on behalf of Chinese state-run energy company CEFC, made forays into Maine’s cannabis markets beginning in 2019.
A Chinese associate of former First Son Hunter Biden paid $100,000 to an elderly Maine woman in a failed bid to establish a massive cannabis cultivation facility in the remote town of Staceyville, the Robinson Report has learned.
“My family was in debt, and that was a lot of money,” 70-year-old Vonalee Sides said in a phone interview.
Sides is listed in Secretary of State records and Office of Cannabis Policy (OCP) records as the president of Sherman Growth, Inc., a company that was incorporated in Dec. 2019 and applied for a Tier-4 Adult Use cannabis cultivation license.
Mervyn Yan, who testified before the House Oversight Committee regarding large payments he made to Hunter Biden and President Joe Biden’s brother, James Biden, was the principal behind Sherman Growth, Inc., a business incorporated in December 2019
The timing of the incorporation of Sherman Growth came just months before Maine’s legal marijuana program — green-lighted by Gov. Janet Mills and Democratic lawmakers — would begin in 2020.
Vonalee Sides, the 70-year-old town agent for Staceyville, is listed in both Secretary of State records and Office of Cannabis Policy records as a partner in Sherman growth alongside Yan.
“I’m 70 years old, and back then, I guess I didn’t know what I was getting into,” said Sides.
Sides said she was approached by an individual who used to work for the owners of the large mill building in town — an individual she adamantly refused to identify — and asked if she’d sign her name as president of Sherman Growth. But Sides explained in a phone interview that she was only affiliated with the company “on paper” and was paid $100,000 for allowing Yan to use her name to submit the application to OCP.
She said she was paid as a contractor and received the money in monthly installments, which she dutifully paid taxes on.
According to Sides, Yan’s plan was to purchase the old mill building and turn it into a massive marijuana grow. Had he received the Adult Use Tier-4 cultivation license, Sherman Growth would have been permitted to grow 20,000 plants or more. Tier-4 is the largest license, in terms of plant count, that Maine offers for cannabis cultivation. Despite the proliferation of licensed cannabis businesses across the state since 2020, Maine still has just nine Tier-4 cannabis cultivation operations, according to Office of Cannabis Policy (OCP) records.
OCP records show that as of 2022, the license for Sherman Growth was still pending, but at some point the project folded, and Yan was never successful in his bid to acquire the mill property in Staceyville.
But Yan’s attempted entry into Maine’s cannabis world is remarkable, both because he was at the time a business associate to the brother and son of the President of the United States and because Chinese organized crime was proliferating throughout rural Maine during the Biden presidency.
According to a leaked memo from the Department of Homeland Security, the federal government assessed in early 2023 that more than 270 properties in Maine were controlled by Asian Transnational Criminal Organizations primarily for the purposes of black-market cannabis trafficking.
The Maine Wire’s Triad Weed investigation has independently identified more than 350 facilities throughout the state that have operated as part of the clandestine drug trafficking business.
In early July, seven Chinese nationals were indicted in the District of Massachusetts for their alleged role in a human trafficking and drug trafficking operation that included grow operations in Massachusetts.
Yan, who appears to live in Brooklyn, New York, was previously involved with a Massachusetts cannabis business called Colombia Growth, Inc.
He’s also currently described as the director of Longship Berkshire Corporation, which shares an address with Yan and Coldharbour Capital in Brooklyn.
At the time Yan made the agreement to pay Sides, Maine’s cannabis laws included a residency requirement for cannabis business applicants, but that requirement has since been abolished. According to a source who asked not to be named, Yan was in Maine taking meetings with various financial and cannabis professionals regarding his interest in entering the sector.
Mervyn Yan & The Biden Family
Last year, Mervyn Yan was subpoenaed to appear before the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability to testify about large payments he’d brokered between a Chinese state-run energy company and Hunter and James Biden, the then-presidents son and brother.
According to the transcript of the interview with Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), Yan first met Hunter Biden in May 2017, introduced by Kevin (Gongwen) Dong, and they discussed working together on infrastructure and energy deals involving CEFC China Energy, one of the top privately-operated companies in the Peoples Republic of China.
Yan and Hunter Biden would go on to have a business relationship that was lucrative for Owasco PC, an entity controlled by Biden, and Hudson West III, a joint venture between Yan and Owasco PC.
Yan described himself as the “on-the-ground person” executing deals for Dong, while Hunter Biden was positioned to source opportunities.
Yan met James Biden at the same May 2017 meeting with Hunter Biden and Gongwen Dong, where James introduced himself as Hunter’s uncle; Yan later had business interactions with James Biden, including reimbursing expenses submitted by Lion Hall Group (James Biden’s firm) as part of the Hudson West III joint venture.
From that meeting on, the business relationship between Yan and the Bidens became deep and complex, with hundreds of thousands of dollars moving from sources linked to Yan and President Biden’s closest family members.
Yan did not directly give money to the Bidens but facilitated reimbursements through Hudson West III; for example, Hudson West III wired $33,941.11 to Lion Hall Group on April 3, 2018, for “office expense and reimbursement,” while Yan was a signatory, according to records released by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa).
Money was moved primarily via domestic wire transfers from Hudson West III’s Cathay Bank account, where Yan was a signatory; funds originated from CEFC-linked entities like Hudson West V (controlled by Gongwen Dong) and were disbursed to Owasco (Hunter) and Lion Hall (James) for expenses under the joint venture agreement.
Total reimbursements from Hudson West III to Lion Hall Group (James Biden) included approximately $1.4 million across about 20 wires from August 2017 to September 2018, often labeled as “office expense and reimbursement”; specific examples include $18,000 in January 2018 and $34,000 in April 2018.
Yan had direct contact with Sara Biden (James Biden’s wife) via emails regarding Lion Hall Group’s expenses, taxes, and W-9 forms for Hudson West III, despite initially claiming no relationship with her beyond brief meetings; he emailed Sara Biden on January 29, 2019, requesting W-9 forms for Lion Hall and Owasco.
Yan became a signatory on the Hudson West III bank account at Cathay Bank on March 31, 2018, and facilitated withdrawals and reimbursements, including payments to Lion Hall Group for business expenses equivalent to those for Owasco.
Yan signed an Assignment and Assumption of Interest agreement on behalf of Coldharbour Capital LLC with Hunter Biden (on behalf of Owasco PC and Hudson West III) and Gongwen Dong (on behalf of Hudson West V) in 2018, transferring interests related to CEFC deals.
Yan and Biden were both 50 percent partners in a venture called Hudson West III, with Biden signing on behalf of Owasco PC and Yan signing for Coldharbour Capital LLC.
Yan’s Coldharbour Capital LLC received multiple wires from Hudson West III, including $20,833.34 on April 3, 2018, and $6,667 on April 2, 2018 (for Jiaqi Bao, another associate), as part of ongoing reimbursements and salaries; these were funded by CEFC-linked entities.
According to records released by congressional Republicans, CEFC paid the Bidens through Hudson West III to leverage their connections for U.S. energy sector access and deals; CEFC’s mission was to serve China’s national energy strategy, including overseas investments, and the Bidens provided in-roads for CEFC to pursue projects like LNG terminals, potentially allowing CEFC equity in U.S. assets and exporting resources to China.
Nothing in the materials released by congressional Republicans mention Yan’s apparent interest in Maine’s cannabis industry, and it’s unclear whether the New York entrepreneur with connections to CCP-controlled companies and the First Family remained involved in Maine ventures after Sherman Growth went bust.
