Forestry consultant or Forestry conman. Such is the question to be asked of Pike County's Jeffery Taylor as the lawsuits accusing him of fraud continue to pile up.
Parveen Budhiraja sued Taylor, his wife Susan, and Taylor Forestry, Inc. in Pike County Court on October 3. The complaint charges:
The plaintiff would show unto the Court that he loaned the defendants the sum of $90,210.00, based on their representation that they would repay the amounts loaned when the defendants knew they had no intention of repaying the amounts loaned. The defendants intended for the plaintiff to reasonably rely upon those false representations not knowing their representations were false, and he loaned money to them in reliance upon their representations to his proximate injury. The plaintiff would show unto the Court that the defendants paid $9.000.00 toward the satisfaction of said loans. leaving a remaining balance of $81,210.00 due and owning the plaintiff. A copy of NSF checks written by the defendants to the plaintiff is attached herero made a part hereof and incorporated herein by reference as Exhibit "A."
Attorney Edward Bean represents the plaintiff. The case is assigned to Pike County Court Judge David Brewer.
There are three other pending lawsuits charging Taylor with fraud.
Catherine McCarty
McCarty gave Good Hope the right to harvest timber on her Wilkinson County property. Taylor acted as McCarty's agent. Good Hope paid Taylor, who was supposed to in turn pay his client.
Pike County Circuit Judge David Strong ordered forestry consultant Jeff Taylor to pay Ridgway Management $306,747 by July 9 yesterday. Ridgway accused Taylor of pocketing the money it was owed under a timber harvesting contract.
New South contracted with Ridgeway to harvest timber on Ridgeway's properties in Simpson and Rankin counties. The contract stated Taylor would act as Ridgeway's agent in handling payments and weekly settlement records for all timber cut each week.
New South paid Taylor but Taylor did not pay Ridgway. New South provided a list of checks that added up to $329,835 and were paid to Taylor. ....
Taylor must pay $100,000 to the plaintiff by June 28. Taylor shall pay the remaining $206,747 to Ridgway by July 9. If the judgment is not paid, Taylor will pay an additional $10,000 in attorney's fees and sit for a judgment debtor exam by July 19. Earlier post.
Taylor apparently did not pay the judgment because Ridgway filed a motion to enforce the judgment in September.
Russell Jones
Jones sued Taylor in Pike County Circuit Court. The lawsuit alleged:
Russell Jones engaged in three investment "agreements" with Taylor. Two contracts were for the purchase of timber while another contract was for improvements to land. Jones would harvest timber on two properties in Pike County. The plaintiff paid Taylor $200,00 up front for the harvesting. The complaint states:
9. In return for the first timber purchase, Taylor reimbursed Jones $85,000 of the $ 100,000. Taylor subsequently wrote Jones a check for $53,000 owed by Taylor to Jones for the first timber purchase and a return on the investment, but that check was returned by the bank for insufficient funds. Taylor still owes Jones not less than $53,000 in connection with the first timber purchase.I0. In return for the second timber purchase, Taylor has not paid Jones any amount or money, and Taylor still owes Jones the full promised amount of $140,000. Taylor has failed to pay Jones any of that amount.Jones claims Taylor owes him $193,000 under the timber harvesting agreements. There is also the matter of the land improvements contract.
The plaintiff loaned the defendant $400,000 to buy two parcels that would be improved. Taylor agreed to repay Jones $400,000 and a $60,000 return on the investment. However, Taylor allegedly has not paid Jones any money under this agreement. Earlier post.
20 comments:
This Taylor guy had some type of exit strategy or other reason for doing all of this. These are considerable sums of money all stolen in a short period of time. My guess is he or his wife had some bad habits the money was being used for. He couldn't have possibly thought he would get away with this theft.
10:35 You are right as Math doesn’t add up at all. Sound much like Madison Timber Fraud!
Does anyone else have the feeling that this stuff happens disproportionately for a state with the population size of MS? Or Kingfish just does a great job of digging this stuff up.
Yeah what he said!!! This is some of the Screwyest Business Dealealings I've ever read about! The "Plaintiffs" must be over 100 yrs old to fall for this crap! Whoever heard of paying somebody up front to harvest their timber??? Man when I sold timber it was written in my contract that them checks were written to Me-And Me Only- and then I Paid my agent!
Mississippi has a lot of older trustworthy people who have money and land. Mississippi also has a TON of timber pimps looking to make a quick buck. It is a target rich environment.
How many times does the timber pimp's pitch include the fact that the timber pimp's second cousin twice removed played high school football with the victim's former inlaw's stepson back when men were men?
A few years ago one of my fellow Land Surveyor friends was hired by a little old lady down around Columbia MS to survey a wooded 40 acre or so tract of land, he surveyed it got paid job complete. Then a year or so later the little old lady passed away. The heirs to the property came down from Chicago for the funeral, called the Land Surveyor to see if he would show them the corners to the property. What once was wooded was now clear cut. Not a stick of timber on the property. Come to find out someone slick had paid the taxes on the property, showed the tax receipt to a timber cutting outfit as if he was the owner of the property, they cut the trees dude with the receipt got paid. Moral of the story: IF you own rural tracts of land you better keep an eye on it.
wine, women song and gambling
Whenever I see consultant, I read it as con-man. Ever notice how many politicians become “consultants ?” These, consultants, who make a living off consultation fees…I hope they get warts.
https://trellis.law/doc/213403205/judgment-index-9
12:05, that sounds like a big ole wand he didn't make payments on.
The contract that McCarty Docusigned was altered to change payments from her to Taylor, and then it was presented to Good Hope for execution.
There will be more coming forward. It’s so sad this has happened to so many people. He hurt so many people and put a black eye on honest foresters. So many don’t know about it and they need to know if they were cheated. This is the only place telling what he has done to others. Where is the news this is a a big story?
The timber and rural land business is one of the most corrupt in Mississippi. If land has timber on it most landowners end up being ripped off or the timber is stolen outright. Hunters who buy land in rural areas get ripped off as well with falsified timber appraisals and timber that has already been sold leaving them with nothing but cutover land.
Did Taylor ever sell his share/membership on Togo Island? He had it listed for sale for $700,000.00 plus. He was living way above his means…
But in a different way. In the Madison Timber fraud case, there never was any money...they just made it look like timber was being sold. In this case, there was a legit timber sale with real money, but the timber agent was putting himself between the timber buyer (Good Hope) and the landowner. I know first-hand this is all wrong. If you sell timber, the money should go directly to you, and the timber agent presents an invoice for his services/commission and is paid by the landowner.
Surely the local district attorney or even the state attorney general will have a grand jury to look into these matters. These issues need to go from the civil proceedings to criminal inditements.
What happened to the law where you were put in jail for writing hot checks. I know people who went to jail for writing bad checks. Is that law gone? Here in Pike County I have been told there are insufficient fund checks everywhere. Some folks seem to be above the law.
It is a sad day that this happens from someone who is a crook. I live in Pike County and a friend goes to his church and I guess they believe him when he tells everyone it’s all a lie. I guess you can write bad checks here too. How do you get to destroy so many people and never get punished for it? I guess it’s who you know!
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