Thursday, August 1, 2024

Timber! Forestry Consultant Sued for Fraud Again

Is Jeffrey Taylor a forestry consultant or forestry consultant?  Madison County resident Catherine McCarty sued Taylor Forestry and Jeffrey Taylor in Pike County Circuit Court on July 22.  It is the third such lawsuit filed against Taylor this year.   


Ms. McCarty owned land in Wilkinson County.  She gave Good Hope Timber the right to cut her timber while hiring Taylor to act as her agent in all transactions with Good Hope.  The contract required Good Hope to make weekly payments to Mr. Taylor.  Mr. Taylor would in turn pay Ms. McCarty.  

The contract required Good Hope to pay a $30,000 deposit to Taylor, which the company dutifully paid in September 2022.  Taylor Forestry cut a check to Ms. McCarty for the $30,000 deposit on May 18, 2024 but the check bounced.  

Taylor Forestry issued an invoice for $25,070 for "reforestation and seedlings" in July 2023 to the plaintiff, who in turn paid the invoice.  The company admitted it did not plant any seedlings so it issued a check for $55,070 to Ms. McCarty for the deposit and as a refund for her seedlings payment.  As there was no shame in the Taylor game, the check bounced.  However, the forestry shenanigans were not over.  

The complaint states Ms. McCarty hired Skyland Forestry to plant "containerized Loblolly tree seedlings" at another property she owned in Wilkinson County in January 2023. Taylor acted as Ms. McCarty's agent.  The plaintiff agreed to pay $140 per acre for the planting of the seedlings.  She paid Taylor $7,300.  However, Taylor allegedly approved Skyland to plant inferior seedlings at $107 per acre without notifying its client.  Skyland issued a $5,350 check to Taylor Forestry for the tree planting.  The plaintiff argues Taylor owes $1,950, the difference between the invoiced amount and the actual payment.  

The complaint charges the defendants with breach of fiduciary duty, breach of contract, and unjust enrichment. Ms. McCarty seeks compensatory and punitive damages.  

Phelps Dunbar attorneys Noah Gilmore, Mike Hurst, and Cal Wells represents the plaintiff.   



Taylor faces two similar lawsuits in Pike County Circuit Court.   JJ reported on June 25: 

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.

Ridgway filed a notice of deposition on July 17 so the judgment must not have been paid.  

JJ reported on June 17 another 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.

The total amount of actual damages alleged appears to be over a million dollars.  



38 comments:

Anonymous said...

When my consultant's first check for $30,000 to me bounces, at a minimum that is going to conclude any business from me going forward until I get my $30,000.

Legally and morally the defendant is owed their money. However, it seems some common sense could have made this a much smaller problem.

Anonymous said...

Anyone know if Taylor sat for judgement debtor depo last week in the Ridgeway case? A bit surprised he hasn't filed bankruptcy yet.

Anonymous said...

I don't know a single Forestry Consultant that lets the money flow through their firm. All payments are made directly by the landowner to the vendor be it site preparation contractor, planting contractor, herbicide contractor or forestry consultant etc. The timber harvester pays the landowner, the landowner pays the contractors and consultant. It should NEVER be the other way around.

Anonymous said...

Morals ain't got shit to do with a contract. If morals were common, there would be no need for contracts.

Anonymous said...

9:15 but his is such a fine, church going, family man and handsome!

Anonymous said...

I would speculate Ms McCarty was a good and decent person who fell prey to this crooked bastards schemes. All she wanted was her timber cut and replanted.

He ought to have his nu-ts cut off with a butter knife and then weed eat the entire median of I-55 south for life.

Anonymous said...

Good candidate for the Lumumba administration.

Anonymous said...

The payment structure was all wrong from the start. I recently sold timber and the way it works is your timber agent collects bids on your timber. All the bidders go and cruise your timber and they submit a bid they are willing to pay. The land/timber owner then chooses which bid to accept, and a check for the FULL amount is tendered to the land/timber owner. The agent submits an invoice for his services (usually a small percentage of the sales total) and that's how it's done. The timber agent's incentive is to get the most for his client's timber, because he works for a percentage of the sale. If you encounter a timber agent who says he handles all the money, you should find another agent.

Anonymous said...

What is it about the forestry business that makes it such an attractive con? (I'm thinking about the Lamar Adams scandal, too).

Anonymous said...

every deal done around here is to see how you can screw over the next guy.

its just like what goes on in the arab world.

culturally , if one arab screens over another in a business deal, that only means he is smarter than the guy he screwed over.

thats the way it been in the arab wold for thousands of years. thats also why large portions of the economies of those countries are still floundering in the middle ages.

sounds alot like here in mississippi. ever stop to think that this ''screw the other guy'' mentality is one of the many reasons

mississippi is considered a 3nd world country by the rest of the USA and is last in every economic category?

the good ole boy plantation economy lives on.

Anonymous said...

My money is on Mike Hurst!

Anonymous said...



No water in Taylor’s well.
All these collection efforts are for naught.

Macy said...

Paying Phelps to chase this guy down? I'm very interested on the theory of collection here.

Anonymous said...

9:48 and 10:48. I made the same point in the previous article about this guy and was chastised by someone who is obviously more intelligent than me. Forester gets his commission from buyer. The landowner gets paid directly by the buyer. The replanting bill came to directly to me and I paid the invoice directly to them. Nobody’s hand touches someone else’s money. That system has yet to fail me.

Anonymous said...

11:08, of course Mississippi is pretty much dead last in every category, but we are nowhere near a third world country. Our per capita GDP is the same as the United Kingdom, and a little bit more than New Zealand and France. It’s about a third more than Spain, Italy, South Korea, and Japan, and quadruple that of Russia and Argentina.

Lumumba is hellbent on making Jackson a third world city, and so far his plan is working wonderfully.

Anonymous said...

Anyone know anything about what has happened in the judgement that as been issued against Mr. Taylor back in July ?
$306,747

Anonymous said...

Items 7 - 10 of the Complaint attached to this thread say that Taylor fraudulently altered the timber contract.

8. The Timber Contract requires Good Hope to make weekly payments to McCarty "for all Timber cut and remove the preceding week"

9. Taylor Forestry altered the Timber Contract and issued it to Good Hope Timber for Signature.

10. The Fraudulent Timber Contract included a provision requiring Good Hope to deposit $30,000.00 in escrow with Taylor Forestry at the beginning of the timber cut, rather than issuing payment directly to McCarty.

Anonymous said...

See items 8 - 10 in the court filing attached to this article.

Macy said...

I think that the attorneys pursuing collection need to be careful. It is quite foreseeable that their clients are all going to be competing creditors.

Lookout said...

Why are there so many crooks in Mississippi.

Anonymous said...

to 7:56..............SEE COMMENT AT 11:08 for a complete explanation

Anonymous said...

August 1 1038, the bug outbreak last summer haa made lump sum sales a lot less attractive than they used to be. Pay as cut sales with sizable advances are at least for now, a better option for the landowners interests. But either way, no landowner timber sale money should go through the consultants account. There's rumors going around that this guy did this on a tract and took advances from 3 different companies and obviously only one of them got to cut the tract, but the other 2 never got their money back

Anonymous said...

Someone explain how he recently became Deacon at the Big First Baptist Church in Summit, Ms.

Anonymous said...

Does anyone know if he still has his real estate or forestry license?

Anonymous said...

He shouldn’t have a real estate license or forestry license. He should be in jail.

Anonymous said...

You are so right!!!I pray not because if nobody reads this he will probably do the next person like this. I don’t understand how it’s not on television to ask those questions.

Anonymous said...

Same as all the deacons

Anonymous said...

There is so much more to this story and so much money owed. I live in Pike County and it’s hard to believe. Where did all the money go? I head bad checks were written all over.

Anonymous said...

Where is the Daily Leader or Enterprise Journal on this? There hasn't been a whisper of this in any local news, meanwhile these Jackson Jambalaya links are being sent constantly around Sw MS.

Anonymous said...

You are right where are the newspapers and the television news? This will only continue because so many don’t know about it. I have been told so many are broke because of him. Here in Pike county it’s unreal the people he owes.

Anonymous said...

There is another lawsuit on Trellis that was in 2023 just unreal.

Anonymous said...

Wish someone could find that out!

Anonymous said...

My family paid him to replant our place and just seeing this. I guess I know why he’s avoiding me. We will join the rest of the folks he owes. I’ve been told a lot more and in shock. GREED!!!! Bottom line!!!!

Anonymous said...

Normally you pay for planting trees after job is finished.

Anonymous said...

You are right but my family like so many folks trusted him. and didn’t know about all he has done. There are probably people still getting done wrong because they don’t know about this platform. Thank goodness they tell people what he’s done.

Anonymous said...

He owes some folks down in Louisiana that are coming forward. I was told he’s off real estate sights so that license must be gone but forestry license they still have his name up. ESurely they won’t let him keep his license.

Anonymous said...

Why won’t the Mississippi Board of Forestry take down his name? I don’t understand!!! If anyone else it would be off their site! There are people who look to them to find a forester.

Anonymous said...

I guess everyone has forgotten and all is so quiet… guess you can write hot checks wand get by with it and do folks dirty how sad!!!


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