Peninsula cannabis farm executives accused of wage theft

REDWOOD CITY — Two higher-ups at a Pescadero cannabis farm are accused of failing to pay more than $200,000 in wages to their employees, according to prosecutors.

Related Articles

Redwood City man killed in shooting early Thursday morning

Police investigating shooting death of man found behind Peninsula Whole Foods Market

East Bay firefighter’s child molestation case begins as prosecutors reveal 8 alleged victims have come forward

Half Moon Bay business owner’s plot to shoot employee foiled by gun jam, deputies say

Man who killed San Carlos parents in street race crash sentenced to 90 days of home monitoring

Aaron Esquer Corrales of Rohnert Park and Roberto Ahmed Perez-Flores of Daly City, both 41, are charged with 16 felony counts of wage theft, San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said.

The men served as officers at Miles Ahead Ventures — Esquer Corrales as the chief executive and financial officer and Perez-Flores as the secretary, according to prosecutors. The company leased a farm in the city of Pescadero to cultivate cannabis.

Esquer Corrales and Perez-Flores allegedly failed to pay 30 employees wages for work completed between May 1, 2024, and Jan. 24. The wages owed individually to the victims ranged from $350 to $28,600.

Prosecutors said the men also failed to secure a workers’ compensation insurance policy.

Through Miles Ahead Ventures, the men allegedly housed workers in tents inside a rat-infested greenhouse with little more than a portable toilet and a small cooking stove.

“The failure to pay wages to poor farmworkers while housing them in deplorable conditions is both offensive and illegal,” Wagstaffe said. “Our goal is to hold these two defendants accountable and make them pay restitution for the money they stole from these vulnerable victims.”

Perez-Flores appeared in court Wednesday afternoon and pleaded not guilty to the charges, according to Wagstaffe. The Private Defender Program was appointed to represent him.

Prosecutors said Esquer Corrales is in custody in Marin County and awaiting transportation to San Mateo County.