The list of lawsuits filed against forestry con-sultant Jeffery Taylor keeps getting longer and longer as more landowners claim Taylor ripped them off while acting as their forestry agent.
The lawsuits follow the same pattern. A property owner hires Taylor to represent him in managing his the removal of the timber on his property. The timber is sold and the payments are made to Taylor. The forestry consultant is allowed to keep a commission but he is supposed to remit the rest of the payment to his client. Unfortunately, there are now a plethora of lawsuits accusing Taylor of keeping such money for himself.
JJ reported in October 2024 that several lawsuits accusing Taylor of fraud were filed in Pike County Circuit Court. Since that post, more lawsuits have been filed. First up is Meyer Timber of Slidell, Louisiana.
Meyer Timber Lawsuit
Meyer Timber sued Taylor and his company, Taylor Forestry, Inc. in Pike County Court on December 20, 2024. The complaint was similar to others filed against the forestry consultant over the last year.
The complaint alleged Taylor was hired to manage timber, cutting, and removal on land owned by Meyer in Amite County. Taylor in turn hired Adams Logging to cut and remove the timber. Adams was supposed to send payment for the timber to Taylor. Taylor would deduct his commission and remit the balance to Meyer.
Problems began before the first tree was cut in Amite County. Taylor allegedly told Adams that Meyer required a $20,000 deposit. Adams complied with the request and paid Taylor $20,000. Meyer accused Taylor of pocketing the entire sum in the fall of 2023. Taylor supposedly returned the payment to Adams at a later date.
Although Adams cut and removed timber from Meyer's land, Taylor never sent a payment to Meyer until May 30, 2024 when he issued a bad check for $25,202 to the company.
The complaint demanded repayment of the bad check as well as interest and attorney's fees. Taylor never filed a response to the complaint.
Meyer Timber asked the Court to dismiss the complaint without prejudice.
McComb attorney Gary Honea represents Meyer.
LEAF Capital Funding, LLC
LEAF obtained a default judgment against Taylor and his company for $304,580 in July 2024 in the Court of Common Pleas in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The company registered the judgment against the defendants in Pike County Circuit Court on February 10.
Morrow Properties
Morrow Properties of Yazoo City sued Jeff Taylor and Taylor Forestry in Pike County Circuit Court on December 9, 2024.
The plaintiff owns property in Claiborne County. Same song, umpteenth verse. Morrow hired Taylor to act as its timber agent. Donald Pulpwood was retained to cut the timber. Pulpwood was supposed to send the payments to Taylor instead of Morrow.
Pulpwood sent Taylor a check for $50,000 in advance to cutting timber. The complaint charges Taylor "wrongfully absconded" with the $50,000 payment.
The complaint asks for actual damages of $50,000 as well as punitive damages and interest. Taylor answered the complaint on February 6. The answer contains the standard denials.
Attorney Robert Sanders represents Morrow.
The lawsuits posted above have been filed since JJ last reported on Jefferey Taylor's troubles in October 2024.
If readers are keeping score, the older lawsuits are posted below.
Parveen Budhiraja
Parveen Budhiraja sued Taylor, his wife Susan, and Taylor Forestry, Inc. in Pike County Court on October 3, 2024. 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.
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.
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
21 comments:
put him into an involuntary chapter 7
Is it high end pickup trucks, women or gambling-- or perhaps all three?
I wonder if a complaint has been made to the Mississippi Board of Registered Foresters?
I am a Reg Forester in Mississippi. I hate to hear when trusting landowners get taken advantage of, but they need to do their homework and check the forester out, don't call references they give you, call other foresters in the county they work in, Its a small community, we all know each other.
A good forester will more than make up for the commission he earns.
@9:39, he was a member of Togo Island. A very high dollar share hunting club on the river. Buy in around the $1mm range. Antennas should have gone up as to how a damn forester could join a million dollar share club.
Taylor has either a gambling, or a drug problem.
These are big numbers. The kind of numbers that can put you in the Pearl River with concrete shoes.
And Equity Share hunting camp.....what a scumbag
@9:39 - He's a criminal, a thief, a fraud, a cheat and a con man. Who cares what he spent other people's money on?
Gambling or Murdaugh quantities of opiate addiction?
Or nose candy?
Dillusions of grandeur?
Makin' their way the only way they know how
That's just a little bit more than the law will allow
HUGE ego!
The board of registered foresters revoked his license months ago
This deadbeat has a membership in exclusive Togo Island? Allegedly, there’s a deadbeat with a membership in Paw Paw.
Am I reading that correctly that a landowner paid the forestry agent up front to harvest timber? That's not how a timber sale works. The landowner doesn't pay a cent to anyone, but rather entertains bids from timber buyers. The forester typically is the agent that collect the bids and presents them, with his recommendation, to the landowner. The landowner then will accept (unless all are unreasonable to him/her) one and the money for the timber is paid to the landowner up front. This is before a single tree is harvested.The forester gets a percentage of the sale, much like a realtor gets a percentage of a house that sells. But that is done via a invoice sent to the landowner after the sale is complete.
Taylor was collecting advances on the timber but the money collected was not making it to the landowner. In some cases, the landowner didn't even know that an advance had been paid. Basically all of the timber sale revenue was passing through Taylor Forestry's bank account, he was skimming off the top, fabricating documents to match, and leaving the landowners none the wiser. After all, he was their trusted advisor looking out for their best interests right? Until the fraud got too big to hide. There are potentially hundreds of landowners that don't yet know they've been robbed
10:27 - payments can be made several different ways. With clearcuts, it's usually a lump sum paid before harvest begins. With thinnings, it's usually paid by the ton, with mill weight tickets for each load attached to the check made payable to the landowner. The Forestry Consultant is usually compensated in one of two ways. 1. He invoices the landowner after payments are made to the landowner for an agreed upon amount or percentage. 2. The company that receives the timber can give two checks, one to the owner and one to the consultant. All agreed upon, in writing, as to the amounts and/or percentages with a statement attached showing where all the money went. Never have I seen checks for the full amount made payable to the consultant who then sends a check to the landowner. If a timber buyer or a mill is doing this, or advancing money to the consultant, they better have it in writing signed by the landowner. I don't know why a landowner would ever agree to do this since they have the most to lose as the amount they're due is usually in excess of 90% of the value of the timber.
I have delt with Charles Donald Timber Co several times and know they were unaware with Consulting forester was up to
This is the only news platform that will tell others about what he has done. So many do not know about this. I can’t believe the news won’t put this up. Everyone I know would be in jail for being a thief. A lot has still not come forward for what he owes them. He should not be allowed anywhere near the timber business. He destroyed a lot of good people.
If all of that money....millions of dollars I assume....was flowing through his bank account, has anyone looked into his income taxes to see if it was all accounted for properly? I mean, he would have had to have been generating 1099's to the landowners for the money that he did pay rhem and then claiming as income the money that he stole. That's how they nailed Capone....income tax fraud.
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