Two decades ago, an attorney who represented a Florida State Attorney in an alleged corruption case was so incensed at the behavior of the federal prosecutor, that he said he would try to have US Attorney Robert W. Merkle removed from his job. According to a newspaper report that is over 20 years old, Defense Attorney Barry Cohen said, "I want him the hell out of office."
The newspaper reported that "Cohen said he wants Merkle out of office because he abuses his power behind the closed doors of the grand jury......
" The report noted that "Merkle, a former Pinellas prosecutor who long ago earned the nickname "Mad Dog" for his courtroom zeal, issued a statement in which he called Cohen's charges 'inflammatory fiction'. (Times, 9-8-84)
Around the country, farmers say the federal judiciary and prosecutor's staff is rife with prosecutorial misconduct, corruption and failure to comply with federal evidentiary laws–Discovery. The by-product of this alleged corruption is a massive human toll, which accelerates the crisis within the American family farm community. Farm after farm goes on the auction block, seized and sold on what many farmers say is faulty evidence generated by allegedly forged loan papers, illegally confiscated land, and conflicts of interest on part of the federal employees and farm loan agents involved.
Some of the more paranoid farmers claim the entire judicial system is compromised by conflicts of interest over how money from farm auctions is handled, and who benefits from farm foreclosure/auctions. They say the funds from these farm auctions benefits federal employees, in several ways, all the way from providing massive bonuses to farm loan agency personnel who initiate the process up to other and federal employees who not only reportedly receive bonuses for handling foreclosures in court, but also benefit as beneficiaries of the federal pension system which is in part funded by proceeds from farm auctions. (28 USC 376)
According to federal law, the proceeds of these auctions go into the United States Treasury general fund and provide federal funding for many federal programs, including pensions for federal prosecutors and judges. Barnyard attorneys and outraged farm activists say the whole system is tainted. They accuse Farm Service Employees, US Attorneys and judges of a major conflict of interest. They also say employees of the Farm Service Administration are more interested in getting performance bonuses for foreclosing on farmers, than they are in following the congressional mandates
Given what many farm activists say is a long-standing emphasis of auction over payoff, many farmers believe that the feds are more interested in generating bonus bucks than they are in getting loans repaid or receiving good value from farm auctions on behalf of U.S. taxpayers.
They point to numerous occasions where farmers have come into Farm Service Administration offices with half a million dollar cashier checks, guaranteed funds to pay off loans, only to be either ignored, given the run around or told that "it's too late."
Outraged farmers and civil rights activists point to a number of cases around the country, including one Kentucky case where over a hundred thousand dollars worth of farm equipment was batch auctioned for $13,000. Several farmers say these cheap sales are par for the course and they also say that it makes no sense. If, they point out, the federal government's goal is to recover as much of the debt as is possible, why, then, do the auctioneers accept such low ball bids? More than one farmer has made the comparison between farm auctions and "churning" investments on Wall Street.
"Churning" is a process where the stock broker invests and reinvests a client's money for the sole purpose of generating fees. He could care less what the return is, because his only goal is to profit from the fees associated with "servicing the account."
Farmers from several states question the integrity of the whole auction process. They say that there even appears to be collusion between buyers and some auction houses. Some of this may be sour grapes, anger over the loss of such massive amounts of farm land and farm equipment, but observers across the nation say they believe there is a pattern, a pattern of refusing payoff from farmers, a pattern of selling farm equipment for less than its worth, and a pattern of federal employees personally profiting from the loans they service and the bankruptcies they handle.
Farmers allege that the intimidation of farm families, combined with tainted politics and corrupt influence from local farm loan councils appears to be standard operating procedure for Farm Service Administration offices from Alabama, Mississippi, Kentucky, Arkansas, and dozens of farm states around the nation. Scores of farm activists around the nation say they have documented evidence of collusion, corruption, intimidation, document forgery, loan application alteration and corrupt business practices from dozens of Farm Service Administration (FSA) offices.
One agency in Kentucky reportedly has never been audited, despite the request of a farmer whose farm and equipment was sold under disputed circumstances, and despite rumors of a wholesale shredding of official documents at that agency prior to and after a disputed farm auction. This farmer also tried to pay off the entire loan in full, but was not allowed to do so. So, the question remains: what is the true purpose of these auctions if the loan agents refuse to accept payoff of the loan and go ahead with auctions which generate less than the value of the loan, or the value of the land or equipment involved?
And, even more telling in these days of flying pink slips and congressional testimony from Justice Department officials, how can officers of the court and members of the federal judiciary sit on cases where they allegedly benefit from the outcome?
From the farm loan officers who receive bonuses from farm repossessions, all the way to the federal prosecutors who oversee the farm auction and civil lawsuits, to the judges who rule on the court cases generated by the whole process, the entire process could be best examined by an old legal principle: cui bono. That is: who benefits?
In the local loan office, employees receive bonuses for accelerating loans. These bonuses reportedly amount to many thousands of dollars–per loan. And, it doesn't end there: Federal judges reportedly benefit indirectly from the system as well, due to how their pensions are funded–from the General Fund, where the auction proceeds are deposited.
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