The $50,000 Pigford “Black Farmers settlement” checks scheduled to go out to untold thousands of people–many of whom never farmed a day in their life–as part of an Obama-promoted scheme touted by some advocates as “reparations” have been delayed amid legal squabbling over attorney fees.
The “attempted-to-farmers” are getting restless.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) extended the deadline to May 1 for Hispanic and female farmers to apply for their own compensation under a separate, Pigford-inspired program.
NOTICE: Deadline for Hispanic & woman farmers & rancher claims extended to May 1, 2013 1.usa.gov/13qFop9
— Dept. of Agriculture (@USDA) March 25, 2013
The Pigford scheme remains one of the largest, most blatant frauds in Amercan history. The story has been ignored, for the most part, by the mainstream media–though some journalists, like Fox News’ John Stossel and Rick Sanchez, have caught on (see video below).
The mainstream media’s silence persists despite proof uncovered by Breitbart News that the original lawsuit on behalf of a few hundred black farmers who suffered discrimination by the USDA was hijacked by lawyers and politicians as a scam to pay tens of thousands of people who claim they “attempted to farm.”
As a Senator, Obama pushed a second round of Pigford payments that opened the settlement to even more fraud and as President, Obama signed the Pigford II payments into law.
However, the payments for Pigford have yet to go out, partly due to problems with the payment of tens of millions of dollars in attorneys’ fees.
The MySettlementClaims.com website, in a section with the subtle title Where’s My Money?!?, reports on the status of a number of class action settlements, including the Pigford II payments. The website reveals an interesting legal battle between the Pigford lawyers and “Dr.” John Boyd. Boyd is a longtime Pigford advocate, Obama ally and head of something called The National Black Farmer’s Association (for more information on who “Dr.” John Boyd is, watch this short video):
Earlier this year, John Boyd’s motion to respond to class counsels’ attorney fee motion was denied by the Court. In the Court’s order, Judge Friedman noted that any claims Mr. Boyd had against Class Counsel would have to be litigated in a separate action because he is not a party to Pigford II.
It has come to our attention that Mr. Boyd had just such a suit in mind while waiting for Judge Friedman to rule on his motion, and he in fact filed a separate lawsuit against certain class counsel on November 21, 2012. How does this relate to the Black Farmers Discrimination Class Action Settlement?
Mr. Boyd’s complaint basically argues that class counsel made him do all the heavy lifting work of getting the settlement finalized and funded, while they claim all of the monetary compensation and give him nothing.
In other words, “Dr.” John Boyd allegedly wants to get paid handsomely for his tireless work trying to help create a settlement that redistributes wealth from the taxpayers to attempted-to-farmers. So the attempted-to-farmers must wait.
Photo credit: crewof42.com
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