A record multi-million dollar gift to Florida's only public historically Black university has been void for months, an independent investigator said Thursday, as a third-party report determined school officials failed to vet a “fraudulent” contribution and that the donor's self-valuation of his fledgling hemp company was “baseless.”
Little-known entrepreneur Gregory Gerami's donation of more than $237 million was “invalidated” ten days after its big reveal at Florida A&M University's graduation ceremony because of procedural missteps, investigator Michael McLaughlin told trustees.
Gerami violated his equity management account’s terms by improperly transferring 15 million stock shares in the first place, according to an Aug. 5 report by the law office of Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney, PC. When the company terminated Gerami’s contract on May 14, McLaughlin said, any stock certificates in FAMU Foundation’s possession were cancelled.
What’s more, the foundation never countersigned the gift agreement after both parties signed an incorrect version on the day of commencement.
Thursday's meeting came three months after that celebratory affair. The university president posed onstage with a jumbo check alongside Gerami, who was invited to speak despite a documented history of dubious business ventures and failed higher education giving.
Things soon fell apart. After almost immediate public outcry, the school paused the gift and a vice president left her position. President Larry Robinson submitted his resignation last month.
Gerami, who founded Batterson Farms Corp in 2021, told The Associated Press that he had not read the full report. He agreed that his internal valuation “doesn’t carry any weight,” but said he obtained a third-party valuation after the debacle.
According to investigators, Gerami provided a FAMU Foundation official on June 28 with the first two pages of a valuation by Stonebridge Advisors Inc. The appraisal suggests Batterson Farms Corp is worth $9.93 per share — well below the $15.85 figure from the initial gift agreement.
Gerami declined to provide AP with any documents supporting this conclusion, saying, “You don’t need the full report.” He also denied that he improperly transferred company shares to the FAMU Foundation. He said he used “the process I have always followed.”
Millions intended for scholarships, athletics facilities, the nursing school and a student business incubator will not be realized. In their place are reputational damage and halted contributions from previous donors who assumed the university's financial windfall made additional gifts unnecessary, according to the report.
The investigation blames administrators' lack of due diligence on their overzealous pursuit of such a transformative gift and flawed understanding of private stock donations. Robinson repeatedly told staffers “not to mess this up,” according to investigators. Ignored warning signs alleged by the report include:
— An April 12 message from financial services company Raymond James revoking its previous verification of Gerami’s assets. In an email to two administrators, the firm’s vice president said that “we do not believe the pricing of certain securities was accurate.”
— “Derogatory” information discovered by the communications director as he drafted Gerami’s commencement speech. That included a failed $95 million donation to Coastal Carolina University in 2020. The report said the official “chose to ignore these concerns and did not report them to anyone else, assuming that others were responsible for due diligence.”
— An anonymous April 29 ethics hotline tip that the Texas Department of Agriculture could back up claims that Gerami is a fraud. The Office of Compliance and Ethics reviewed the tip but did not take action because the gift’s secrecy meant that the office was unaware of Gerami.
Senior leadership “were deceived by, and allowed themselves to be deceived by, the Donor — Mr. Gregory Gerami,” the report concluded.
“Neither Batterson Farms Corporation nor any of its affiliated companies had the resources available to meet the promises made in the Gift Agreement," the authors wrote.
Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.
FILE - This image made from a video provided by WCTV shows Gregory Gerami, third from left, and Florida A&M University president Larry Robinson, posing with a ceremonial check, May 4, 2024, in Tallahassee, Fla. (WCTV via AP, File)
DILI, East Timor (AP) — Tens of thousands of East Timorese streamed Tuesday toward a seaside park for Pope Francis’ big Mass, held on the same field where St. John Paul II celebrated an historic liturgy during the nation’s fight for independence from Indonesia.
The Tacitolu park is said to have been a site where Indonesian troops disposed of bodies killed during their rule. Now it is known as the “Park of Peace” and features a larger-than-life-sized statue of John Paul to commemorate his 1989 visit, when the Polish pope shamed Indonesia for its human rights abuses and encouraged the overwhelmingly Catholic Timorese faithful.
John Paul’s visit helped draw attention to the plight of the Timorese people and shine a spotlight on the oppressiveness of Indonesia’s rule, during which as many as 200,000 people were killed over a quarter-century.
Francis celebrates a Mass at the same site Tuesday, following in John Paul's footsteps to cheer the Southeast Asian nation on two decades after it finally became an independent state in 2002. East Timor, known also as Timor-Leste, remains one of the poorest countries, with some 42% of its 1.3 million people living below the poverty line, according to the U.N. Development Program.
Unemployment is high, job opportunities in the formal sector are generally limited and most people are subsistence farmers with no steady income.
But the Timroese are deeply faithful – the territory has been overwhelmingly Catholic ever since Portuguese explorers first arrived in the early 1500s and some 97% of the population today is Catholic. They have turned out in droves to welcome the first pope to visit them as an independent nation, thronging the motorcade route as Francis arrived on Monday and pouring into the Tacitolu site for his Tuesday afternoon Mass.
“Yes this is a very grateful experience for us Timorese," said Ildefonso da Cruz Barreto, who was in the crowd greeting Francis outside the presidential palace. "During our fight for independence, the Catholic Church was a big part of the process.”
Government authorities said some 300,000 people had registered through their dioceses to attend the Mass, but President Jose Ramos-Horta said he expected 700,000 and the Vatican predicted as many as 750,000.
They lined up before dawn by the tens of thousands to enter the Tacitolu park, on the coast about 8 kilometers (nearly 5 miles) from downtown Dili. With hours to go until the service, the roads leading to it were jammed by cars, trucks and buses packed with people; others walked down the middle of the street, ignoring the sidewalks.
“For us, the pope is a reflection of the Lord Jesus, as a shepherd who wants to see his sheep, so we come to him with all our hearts as our worship,” said Alfonso de Jesus, who came from Baucau, the country’s second-largest city after Dili, about 128 kilometers east of the capital.
De Jesus, 56, was among the estimated 100,000 people who attended John Paul’s 1989 Mass, which made headlines around the world because of a riot that broke out just as it was ending. John Paul looked on as baton-wielding Indonesian plain-clothed police clashed with some 20 young men who shouted “Viva a independência” and “Viva el Papa!”
According to Associated Press reporting at the time, the men unfurled a banner in front of the altar and hurled chairs at the policemen. One banner read “Fretilin Welcomes You,” a reference to the independence movement that fought Indonesian rule since East Timor was annexed in 1976 after Portugal dismantled its centuries-old colonial empire.
Four women were reported hospitalized with injuries suffered after being crushed in the surging crowd. The pope wasn't harmed.
Amnesty International later expressed concern that some 40 people had been detained and tortured, though Indonesian authorities at the time denied any arrests or torture.
“The Mass was run very neat and orderly with very tight security,” De Jesus recalled more than three decades later. “But it was crushed by a brief riot at the end of the event.”
Many of the reports at the time quoted Dili Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo in trying to draw attention to the plight of the Timorese people. Belo would go onto win the Nobel Peace Prize with Ramos-Horta for their efforts to peacefully resolve the Timorese conflict.
But Belo has since been discredited, at least outside of East Timor, after the Vatican revealed in 2022 that he had been sanctioned for sexually abusing young boys. Now living in Portugal and blocked by the Vatican from having contact with East Timor, Belo's historic role has been seemingly erased from any official mention during Francis' visit.
Francis has cheered East Timor for the progress it has achieved since independence and is seeking to encourage the country to strengthen its public institutions and look out for the poorest and most vulnerable.
Francis opened his day Tuesday visiting a home for disabled children run by a congregation of religious sisters. Young girls, including one without arms, presented Francis with a traditional woven shawl known as a tais as he arrived at the Irmas Alma school.
As he stroked the hand of a young boy named Silvano in a stroller, Francis said taking care of children with such health needs “teaches us to care.”
“As he allows himself to be cared for, we must learn to be cared for by God, who loves us,” Francis said.
Francis then met with clergy and religious sisters at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, where he praised the women of the church and said their dignity must always be respected.
“Women are the most important thing in the church, because they take care of the most needy,” he said. “They heal them. They accompany them.”
He also heard the story of Florentino de Jesus Martins, an 89-year-old layman who has worked as a catechist, teaching the faith for the archdiocese of Dili, but had to retire because of his Parkinson's disease.
Greeting him, Francis marveled at his dedication, saying he didn't let his ailment paralyze his zeal for spreading the faith. “It seems he's competing with St. Paul the Apostle,” he said.
AP researcher Randy Herschaft contributed from New York.
Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
Pope Francis greets people in the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Dili, East Timor, Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)
Pope Francis leads the holy mass at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Dili, East Timor, Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)
Pope Francis leads the holy mass at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Dili, East Timor, Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)
Pope Francis arrives to lead the holy mass at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Dili, East Timor, Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)
Pope Francis leads the holy mass at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Dili, East Timor, Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)
Pope Francis leads the holy mass at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Dili, East Timor, Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)
Pope Francis leads the holy mass at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Dili, East Timor, Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)
Pope Francis arrives at the 'Irmas ALMA' (Sisters of the Association of Lay Missionaries) School for Children with Disabilities in Dili, East Timor, Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024. Pope Francis has indirectly acknowledged the abuse scandal in East Timor involving its Nobel Peace Prize-winning independence hero Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo. "Let us also not forget that these children and adolescents have their dignity violated," Francis said. "In response, we are all called to do everything possible to prevent every kind of abuse and guarantee a healthy and peaceful childhood for all young people." (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
Pope Francis arrives at the 'Irmas ALMA' (Sisters of the Association of Lay Missionaries) School for Children with Disabilities in Dili, East Timor, Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024. Pope Francis has indirectly acknowledged the abuse scandal in East Timor involving its Nobel Peace Prize-winning independence hero Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo. "Let us also not forget that these children and adolescents have their dignity violated," Francis said. "In response, we are all called to do everything possible to prevent every kind of abuse and guarantee a healthy and peaceful childhood for all young people." (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
Pope Francis arrives at the 'Irmas ALMA' (Sisters of the Association of Lay Missionaries) School for Children with Disabilities in Dili, East Timor, Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024. Pope Francis has indirectly acknowledged the abuse scandal in East Timor involving its Nobel Peace Prize-winning independence hero Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo. "Let us also not forget that these children and adolescents have their dignity violated," Francis said. "In response, we are all called to do everything possible to prevent every kind of abuse and guarantee a healthy and peaceful childhood for all young people." (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
A child attends Pope Francis's visit at the 'Irmas ALMA' (Sisters of the Association of Lay Missionaries) School for Children with Disabilities in Dili, East Timor, Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024. Pope Francis has indirectly acknowledged the abuse scandal in East Timor involving its Nobel Peace Prize-winning independence hero Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
Pope Francis arrives at the 'Irmas ALMA' (Sisters of the Association of Lay Missionaries) School for Children with Disabilities in Dili, East Timor, Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024. Pope Francis has indirectly acknowledged the abuse scandal in East Timor involving its Nobel Peace Prize-winning independence hero Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo. "Let us also not forget that these children and adolescents have their dignity violated," Francis said. "In response, we are all called to do everything possible to prevent every kind of abuse and guarantee a healthy and peaceful childhood for all young people." (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
Pope Francis speaks during a visit at the 'Irmas ALMA' (Sisters of the Association of Lay Missionaries) School for Children with Disabilities in Dili, East Timor, Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024. Pope Francis has indirectly acknowledged the abuse scandal in East Timor involving its Nobel Peace Prize-winning independence hero Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo. At left is Archbishop of Dili Cardinal Virgilio do Carmo da Silva. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
Pope Francis consoles a person during a visit at the 'Irmas ALMA' (Sisters of the Association of Lay Missionaries) School for Children with Disabilities in Dili, East Timor, Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024. Pope Francis has indirectly acknowledged the abuse scandal in East Timor involving its Nobel Peace Prize-winning independence hero Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
Pope Francis consoles a person during a visit at the 'Irmas ALMA' (Sisters of the Association of Lay Missionaries) School for Children with Disabilities in Dili, East Timor, Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024. Pope Francis has indirectly acknowledged the abuse scandal in East Timor involving its Nobel Peace Prize-winning independence hero Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
Pope Francis speaks during a visit at the 'Irmas ALMA' (Sisters of the Association of Lay Missionaries) School for Children with Disabilities in Dili, East Timor, Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024. Pope Francis has indirectly acknowledged the abuse scandal in East Timor involving its Nobel Peace Prize-winning independence hero Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
Pope Francis arrives at the 'Irmas ALMA' (Sisters of the Association of Lay Missionaries) School for Children with Disabilities in Dili, East Timor, Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024. Pope Francis has indirectly acknowledged the abuse scandal in East Timor involving its Nobel Peace Prize-winning independence hero Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
Pope Francis greets people in the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Dili, East Timor, Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)
