Tyrone N. Butts
APE Reporter
3
Jacksonville Plea In Alleged Fraud Against Black Farmers' Fund
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- A college administrator pleaded guilty Tuesday to passing friends and relatives off as farmers to collect $50,000 in settlement payments to black farmers who had wrongly been denied government loans.
Emma Okari Brooks, 55, is one of three people accused of conspiracy to submit false claims to the U.S. Department of Agriculture to collect $400,000 from a national settlement reached with black farmers in a 1997 loan discrimination case.
Each was also originally charged with making fraudulent claims to receive payments from a government agency.
Brooks, who runs an agricultural extension program at Michigan State University and is the former vice president for academic affairs at
r
Edward Waters College in Jacksonville, was arrested in
April in Michigan.
She faces up to 10 years in prison. Prosecutors dropped eight other fraud counts as part of the plea agreement.
Daniel Anekwu, the former senior vice president for business and finance of Edward Waters College, pleaded guilty in May.
Brooks and Anekwu each agreed to testify against Kimberly Colston Woodruff, of Tallahassee, who has not been arrested and may have left Florida.
Brooks remained free on bond pending sentencing, which was scheduled for August.
Brooks' attorney said a group from Arkansas that spoke at black churches nationwide promoted the farm loan settlement as a legal way to get compensated for past discrimination, even for those with only ancestral ties to farming.
"These were people who announced that this was a program to answer past discrimination," attorney Wade Rolle said. "I
t w
as educated people teaching other people how to commit fraud."
Assistant U.S. Attorney Arnold Corsmeier said the settlement
was designed to compensate black farmers who had been denied farm loans because of discrimination.
***********
Wake up America and smell the NIGGERS!
T.N.B.
Jacksonville Plea In Alleged Fraud Against Black Farmers' Fund
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- A college administrator pleaded guilty Tuesday to passing friends and relatives off as farmers to collect $50,000 in settlement payments to black farmers who had wrongly been denied government loans.
Emma Okari Brooks, 55, is one of three people accused of conspiracy to submit false claims to the U.S. Department of Agriculture to collect $400,000 from a national settlement reached with black farmers in a 1997 loan discrimination case.
Each was also originally charged with making fraudulent claims to receive payments from a government agency.
Brooks, who runs an agricultural extension program at Michigan State University and is the former vice president for academic affairs at
r
Edward Waters College in Jacksonville, was arrested in
April in Michigan.
She faces up to 10 years in prison. Prosecutors dropped eight other fraud counts as part of the plea agreement.
Daniel Anekwu, the former senior vice president for business and finance of Edward Waters College, pleaded guilty in May.
Brooks and Anekwu each agreed to testify against Kimberly Colston Woodruff, of Tallahassee, who has not been arrested and may have left Florida.
Brooks remained free on bond pending sentencing, which was scheduled for August.
Brooks' attorney said a group from Arkansas that spoke at black churches nationwide promoted the farm loan settlement as a legal way to get compensated for past discrimination, even for those with only ancestral ties to farming.
"These were people who announced that this was a program to answer past discrimination," attorney Wade Rolle said. "I
t w
as educated people teaching other people how to commit fraud."
Assistant U.S. Attorney Arnold Corsmeier said the settlement
was designed to compensate black farmers who had been denied farm loans because of discrimination.
***********
Wake up America and smell the NIGGERS!
T.N.B.