Rosa Cazares

Introduction

Rosa Cazares is the CEO and public face of La Mota, one of Oregon’s largest cannabis dispensary chains, who was indicted by a federal grand jury on October 15, 2026 on eight counts of tax fraud stemming from unpaid employment taxes in 2020 and 2021. The charging document, issued by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Oregon, alleges Cazares failed to remit $1.5 million in employment taxes over eight consecutive quarters — Social Security, Medicare, and federal income taxes withheld from workers. If convicted, she faces up to five years in prison for each count.

Background Information

Cazares and her longtime romantic and business partner, Aaron Mitchell, built La Mota from a single dispensary into a chain of more than two dozen stores across Oregon, and expanded aggressively into New Mexico. The couple courted the state’s top Democratic politicians, throwing fundraising events for then-Secretary of State Shemia Fagan and now-Gov. Tina Kotek. That proximity collapsed in April 2023, when Willamette Week reported that Fagan had signed a $10,000 consulting contract with the couple for what the paper called nebulous work — while her own office was conducting an audit of the Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission, which regulates cannabis companies. Fagan resigned less than a week after the contract came to light.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Indicted, not convicted. Cazares faces federal charges that have not been tried. She is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in court.

The federal indictment alleges Cazares committed the tax fraud as the CEO of La Mota and its many related limited liability companies, including one called 503 Staffing that handled payroll for the empire. Over eight consecutive quarters spanning 2020 and 2021, prosecutors allege, taxes withheld from employees — their Social Security, Medicare, and federal income tax contributions — were never remitted to the government, totaling $1.5 million. Employment-tax nonpayment is treated as theft from both workers and the public fisc, because the money was withheld from paychecks first.

The indictment arrived after years of escalating tax trouble that WW documented in a 2023 series: the couple kept expanding even as the state and federal governments issued a growing list of tax liens and former business partners sued over unpaid bills and deals gone wrong. Mitchell, for his part, was issued $7.9 million in tax liens by the Oregon Department of Revenue in the summer of 2026 for unpaid balances dating back to 2020, including $3.4 million owed for personal income tax from 2021 alone. The U.S. Attorney’s Office did not respond to a question about whether Mitchell is the subject of a similar investigation.

Public Reaction and Consequences

For the couple, the indictment marks the first criminal consequence after three years in which, as WW put it, they “limped along with few consequences aside from reputational damage.” The political fallout of their earlier conduct had already cost Oregon a secretary of state: Fagan’s resignation in 2023 remains the most direct career casualty of the La Mota orbit, and the couple’s gala fundraising for sitting governors became a byword for the state’s cannabis-money-in-politics problem. The federal charges now shift the exposure from reputational to criminal, with a potential prison term of up to forty years across the eight counts if the maximums ran consecutively.

Current Status

Cazares had been indicted but not arraigned to a trial posture as of the reporting, and no trial date had been announced. Each of the eight counts carries a maximum of five years, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Oregon declined to say whether its investigation extends to Mitchell. The couple’s dispensaries continued operating at the time of reporting.

Impact on Their Career/Life

Cazares built her profile as the CEO and public face of La Mota — the person who fronted the chain’s expansion and its political generosity — and the federal indictment now attaches her name to a payroll-tax prosecution rather than a business story. The unresolved question for the couple’s empire is whether the criminal case accelerates the financial unraveling that the lien record already implied: $7.9 million in state tax liens against Mitchell and his LLCs, a history of unpaid vendors, and now a federal fraud case against the person who ran the payroll. Whatever the outcome, the indictment converts the couple’s long-running tax delinquency from a civil matter into a criminal one.

Sources

• Willamette Week: “La Mota CEO Rosa Cazares, Indicted for Federal Tax Fraud, Could Face Years in Prison” source