110 Delta farmers have had enough and asked a bankruptcy judge to dissolve Express Grain Friday. The Greenwood grain elevator is currently in chapter 11 bankruptcy. The farmers shipped their harvests to Express Grain last fall but were never paid for their crops.
Express Grain filed a chapter 11 bankruptcy petition in late September. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Selene Maddox appointed a Chief Restructuring Officer instead of a bankruptcy trustee. The company continues to operate.
Agriculture Commissioner Andy Gipson said Express Grain submitted phony audits to his agency when it obtained grain elevator licenses, thus the licenses were obtained through fraud. The Commissioner is scheduled to hold a revocation hearing today for Express Grain.
The farmers attempted to use the Commissioner's actions to their advantage. They argue:
If that is the case and the Licenses were secured by misrepresentations and/or fraud, they will likely be vacated, and EGT will be left without the necessary licenses to conduct business in the State of Mississippi going forward. Further, if the Licenses are deemed void ab initio, EGT will have effectively operated illegally since they were re-issued by the State in June 2021....
without the Licenses, EGT can no longer operate as a grain dealer and/or grain warehouse (including any processing of grain) and, as such, its operations as a debtor-in-possession, as allowed by 11 U.S.C..§ 1108, should cease immediately....
The Court's decision to allow the company to operate was attacked as well:
If the facts alleged by the State prove true, the Debtor never had any right to use the grain and grain proceeds in this case and the significance of the loss to All Moving Farmers and their production lenders, who have consistently resisted the continued crushing operations by Business Debtors will have proven to be extreme. As of the filing of this Joint Motion, it appears that the Debtor has, upon information and belief, burned through "cash collateral" exceeding $70,000,000.00¹⁴...in less than 120 days....
The motion claims there are no interested buyers for Express Grain, thus there is no justification to allow the company to remain open due to a pending sale. A footnote (#15) states:
Moreover, as of January 19, 2022, according to the CRO’s report, no potential suitor has been seriously interested in the grain crushing facility which leads to further doubt regarding why the crushing facility has continuously been pushed as a necessary operation for any sale under Section 363 since it appears to have little value as an ongoing operation from the perspective of potential buyers. Moreover, the CRO has consistently failed to investigate whether spot sales have been more profitable than maintaining the crushing operation.
Express Grain has liabilities over $160 million and assets of only $96 million. The liabilities include UMB Bank loans of $70 million.
Express Grain Posts
Express Grain task force pushes fix.
Express Grain: Is the End Nigh?
Express Grain & UMB try to block investigation.
Express Grain prez won't talk.
Express Grain shuck and jive continues.
Commish moves to block Express Grain loan.
Commissioner wants to revoke Express Grain license for fraud.
Senate Committee holds Express Grain hearing.
This week on the podcast: Express Grain
Shucking & jiving to bankruptcy.
Express Grain Prez threatened.
Express Grain collapse over $100 million.
Lawsuit: Express Grain shucked bank out of $71 million.
Were Delta farmers shucked and jived?
Synopsis
Express Grain Terminals opened in 2007 and is a major grain elevator in the Mississippi Delta. Dr. Michael Coleman and his son John Coleman own Express Grain Terminals although John's share is 1%. Express Processing open in 2015 and Express Biodiesel opened in 2018. Express Grain owns the two companies.
Express
Grain ran into some financial trouble a year ago. Several farmers
complained to MDAC in December 2020 that checks for their harvest
bounced. However, the company made good on the checks. However, the
company owed over $70 million to UMB Bank. The company submitted phony
financial statements to the state when it renewed its license in the
spring of 2021. Word circulated among Delta farmers during the harvest
season that the company was in trouble.
Express Grain President John Coleman assured farmers everything was okay in a September 28 letter:
UMB Bank sued the company for fraud on the same day in Leflore County Chancery Court. UMB had issued a $40 million revolving loan and a $35 million term loan to the defendants. The bank extended the loans several times. The bank allegedly caught the company submitting false financial statements. UMB declared Express Grain in default on loans of $71 million. The lawsuit sought repayment of the loans and asked the Chancellor to place the company into receivership. Earlier post.
Express Grain filed a petition for Chapter 11 bankruptcy the next day.
The company reports total liabilities of $106 million in assets of $101 million. However, the company owes another $9 million to farmers. The secured claims are $70 million while unsecured claims are $36 million. Total amount owed to farmers is $41 million. The top twenty unsecured creditors report claims of over $23 million.
The damage does not stop with farmers losing their crops. More than a few banks place liens on harvests when farmers borrowed against them. The bankruptcy means those banks could lose the collateral on those loans.
Some farmers have gone to court to get their harvests back. They accused the bank of keeping the broke borrower afloat just long enough to steal the harvests delivered to the grain elevator without paying for them Earlier post.
Commissioner Gipson said Express Grain submitted phony financial statements when it applied for the renewal of its license. He obtained copies of the audited financial statements for the last three years from the company's accountant, Horne LLP, and compared them to those filed with his agency. The Commissioner said the true audits show the company was suffering a $20 million loss while those filed with his office showed a thriving company. The auditors also stated in their notes that it was doubtful the company could continue "as a going concern."
The Commissioner asked the Court's permission to investigate the company and made it clear he wants to revoke Express Grain's license. However, Express Grain and UMB Bank objected to any investigation of the grain elevator.
The
bankruptcy judge will hold a hearing on the matter on January 25.
However, Commissioner Gipson is holding a revocation hearing on January
24.
14 comments:
I think the following sums it up pretty well, from page 11 of the motion:
"[Express Grain's] pending Chapter 11 proceedings should no longer continue to be used as a mechanism to maximize the recovery on behalf of but one alleged creditor [UMB] . . . from assets that are not even likely to be property of [Express Grain's] purported estates."
Has anyone seen John Coleman lately, or has he already absconded with two suitcases full of cash?
@12:43
He has property in five different countries without extradition treaties with the USA. He was on a plane before this scandal even broke the news.
Where is Chipster Charles Morgan in this picture? Delta Council has always claimed to be the watchdog looking out for the farmers' interests.
1:33 PM Could you elaborate more on that? A lot of people are wondering where their money went.
4:07PM. Delta Council is a regional economic policy organization that would have no more involvement in policing corporate fraud than your local Chamber of Commerce. And yes, Chip Morgan was a wonderful advocate for Delta agriculture until he retired a couple of years ago.
A conversion to a Chapter 7 proceeding probably is warranted here.
So, why in the world would Commissioner Cowboy Gipson rely upon (falsified) company produced financial statements instead of readily available audited statements??!
All Hat Gipson learned sopmething by not noticing the audit documents were faked.
'Fool me once, shame on...shame on you. Fool me—you can't get fooled again.'
6:22 - I've been in the delta for 75 years and have attended more Council functions than you've had rolls of toilet paper. Where were you when Von Braun spoke under the basketball goal in Whitfield Gymnasium?
Delta Council is an advocate organization that survives on dues. Regional economic policy my ass. They have always been an advocate and voice for agricultural interests, including peons who only till the soil.
Thanks for posting us on Chipster's retirement. Who woulda known. Hope he got to keep his chair.
Following up on 9:46: The Commission simply relied on Express Grain to submit the actual audit report(s), instead of forged documents.
To me the real question is why did John Coleman submit a blatantly-forged audit report to renew the licenses one last time in June, and then not pay farmers for the crops Express Grain received, while surely knowing the house of cards would come crashing down and he would get caught?
I'll be interested to see what comes out in discovery in the farmers' suit against UMB.
9:46 pm
That’s a good question.
I am a lawyer and I fill out requests from corporate clients auditors certifying the status of ongoing litigated matters. My reports are part of the auditors report to shareholders or investors or insurers.
Why did Andy accept the doctored reports? Why not as a matter of routine demand the actual auditors report?
This can’t be the only time this has happened.
Attn 9:46 Why would. The commissioner rely on falsified documents? Answer, the same reason the farmers did little or no due diligence themselves. The commissioner probably did his job, but the documents were fake and fraudulent. Go ahead and be mad because of your own laziness and neglect.
If you can't trust a grain elevator operator, who can you trust?
Maybe find a actual farmer to run the thing.
Post a Comment