Local & State Headlines

Farm finance issue sees judgement

• A farm financing deal that began in Albany years ago results in a a $2 million judgment.

Susan McCord

ALBANY — A five-year-old effort by an Albany farm financing company to collect funds from several Altha, Fla., farmers was toppled last month with a federal appeals court’s decision to award Baggett Brothers Farm Inc. more than $2 million, though both parties are challenging the award.

The case stems from a long- standing business relationship between Baggett Brothers and Cougar Agricultural Services Company, formerly F&W Agriservices, according to court papers.

Since the mid-1980s, through representative Dennis Barrentine, Cougar, then known as F&W Agriservices, financed the farming enterprises of three brothers, Lazorth, Billy and Bobby G. Baggett, who operate a 1,200-acre peanut and cotton operation near Altha, Fla.

Cougar or its predecessors, F&W and Agricultural Services and Investments (ASI) loaned Baggett Brothers Farms an average of $900,000 per planting season, to be repaid with proceeds from the season, according to documents filed by Bruce Committe, an attorney for Baggett.

“For the most part, this informal arrangement worked flawlessly for 17 years,” Committe said in a brief to the appeals court.

ASI acknowledged in an appellate brief that the arrangement with the Baggetts had been “oral” with little exception.

In 1999, Barrentine sought and obtained an “alternative source of funding” for Baggett from an organization called the Global Islamic Subfund in the British Virgin Islands, Committe said.

All parties agree that a lease was signed on Jan. 16, 1999. Under the terms of the lease, Baggett would receive three lump-sum payments of $832,458 in exchange for giving “Islamic Lease Fund” legal rights to crops grown on the land, Baggett’s brief said.

ASI claims the lease agreement, though signed, “was never implemented,” and that the parties continued earlier lending practices.

In 2001, Brent Searle took over ASI from Barrentine. Not long after, a racketeering case alleged Barrentine and many of his farmer clients were “all in cahoots;” it was dismissed, said Committe.

In 2002, ASI filed a complaint against the Baggetts for $514,051 and attempted to foreclose on a 1998 security agreement. Baggett claimed it was owed payments from the Islamic lease, and countersued. A bench trial found for ASI, and in 2005 the Baggetts appealed.

The court of appeals for the 11th circuit found in favor of Baggett for $2,038,752. Both sides have requested the court of appeals review the decision. Baggett is requesting an additional $934,428 in interest. Cougar wants the court to review its decision on the lease.

F&W Agriservices, headquartered at 1124 West Oglethorpe Blvd., was the precursor to the Cougar Agricultural Services Company, according to corporate registrations filed with the Georgia Secretary of State’s office.

Cougar’s current chief executive is Stuart Robinson, and its chief financial officer is Daniel Njoroge. Njoroge answered a telephone number listed for ASI as well as Southpoint Plantation, in Terrell County, but referred questions to Cougar’s attorney, Ross McCloy of Panama City, Fla. A spokesperson in McCloy’s office said he would not comment on the case.

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