A Black Farmer Blows the Whistle on the Black Farmer Settlement

 

I have 200 acres in Arkansas and have raised hogs.

Pigford is the biggest rip-off this country has ever known, and there are lots of people in positions of power that know it.  Politicians are using it to buy votes.  Trial lawyers are using it to get rich.

I personally know of people who have no connection to farming at all who got Pigford checks.  People with potted plants in their apartments claimed to be farmers and got paid.  I saw an instance where eight Pigford checks went to one house.   There are drug addicts and pushers who have received payments who have never farmed a day in their life.

There was discrimination at the US Department of Agriculture. It needed to be dealt with. I was suing the USDA before Timothy Pigford even filed suit.  I wrote to attorney Al Pires, who eventually filed a class action lawsuit against the USDA,  but he saw that there wasn’t going to be a huge amount of money for him.  So he passed. What he did find was a way to work a scam from inside the Star City, Arkansas USDA office by paying a USDA employee to process claimants.   This employee would take from $5,000 to $25,000 for each successful Pigford claim.  Pires was in this totally for the money.  He’s made far more money than any black farmer.

John Boyd heads up the National Black Farmers Association and his business isn’t straight.  He worked with James Myart and Tom Burrell. Boyd has his agenda and it’s making money.  He has 70,000 members now.  He wants people that file Pigford claims to join his group and pay $100 in dues every year.  And when he holds meetings about Pigford and gives updates he sometimes asks for another $100 per person for the updates.  Some of these meetings include hundreds of people so he does okay, if you know what I mean.

I saw the fraud coming.  Whenever you put money out there, people are going to take advantage. I told John Boyd about this and he told me I wasn’t being a team player. John Boyd, Tom Burrell, and James Myart know about the massive fraud. I don’t know what team they are on, but I’m not going to be on any team that ignores widespread fraud.

Congress needs to investigate Pigford immediately.  I believe that probably 80 to 90% of Pigford claims are fraudulent. I know that its at least 300 cases in Arkansas alone. By investigating this fraud we are opening up a can of worms.  But it needs to be done.  Justice demands it.

o