The owners of two smoking and vaping supply stores in downtown Los Angeles where a large explosion left several firefighters seriously injured struck plea deals with prosecutors Thursday that call for their businesses to pay more than $100,000 to the city.
As part of the agreement with the Los Angeles city attorney’s office, the retail businesses, Smoke Tokes and Green Buddha, must pay the Los Angeles Fire Department roughly $127,000 to compensate the agency for the investigation into the May 16 blast, which rocked downtown L.A. In addition, Raheel Lakhany and Shafaq Sattar, who each owned one of businesses, agreed to cease operating at the location of the fire.
Charges against Lakhany and Sattar as individual defendants were dismissed as part of the deal. Instead, their businesses pleaded no contest to four municipal code violations involving the improper storage of flammable materials and other fire code violations.