A Florida college president has resigned within the wake of a flap over a multi-million greenback reward from a Texas hemp entrepreneur.
Florida Agricultural and Mechanical College (FAMU) in Might introduced the “reward” from hemp entrepreneur Gregory Gerami of Texas-based Batterson Farms Corp., whom the college described as a “champion of sustainable agriculture and biodegradable hemp merchandise.” In heralding the donation, the college stated it was one of many greatest single private donations ever to an traditionally Black school or college.
PR stunt
However the reward was later discovered to be a public relations stunt, and investigators found that Gerami was linked to an earlier $95 million pledge to Coastal Carolina College, a deal that additionally ultimately collapsed. The varsity withdrew its acceptance of the donation simply days after it was introduced and celebrated at FAMU’s 2024 graduation workout routines, throughout which Robinson knowledgeable the gathering that “the cash is within the financial institution.”
FAMU officers celebrated the bogus pledge at this 12 months’s graduation. (Photograph: FAMU)
The donation was not in money, however consisted of 14 million “personal illiquid” shares within the Issac Batterson Household seventh Belief. A later probe by college officers solid doubt on the worth of the shares, and the donation settlement listed a distinct valuation than college officers had introduced. Gerami failed to deal with the discrepancies, and declined to reply questions on his web value or present particular figures for his enterprise.
Protocols ignored
The administration accepted and introduced the donation with out informing the board of trustees or the college’s basis members, thereby circumventing the college’s conventional vetting protocols.
The varsity’s vice chairman for College Development and govt director of the FAMU Basis, Shawnta Friday-Stroud, who managed the 10-year pledge supply, resigned from these positions within the early days of the controversy, however stays dean of the college’s Faculty of Enterprise & Trade.
Again to educating
Likewise, Robinson will stay at FAMU as an environmental research professor, a place he held previous to taking the presidency seven years in the past.
Gerami has touted himself as “the youngest African American producer and seed vendor” in Texas, the place data present his firm held a state producer’s license as of December 2023. He claimed Batterson Farms has places of work in San Antonio and Van Horn, Texas, and employs 7,000 employees.
Batterson Farms final 12 months introduced it could construct the biggest industrial hydroponic hemp facility within the West Texas metropolis of Muleshoe, however officers there say nothing has come of the challenge.
