As Andrew Breitbart of BigGovernment.com reports, "There seems to be considerable evidence that some black farmers were denied access to timely loans and generally received unfavorable treatment by some USDA employees." While the USDA did not admit to doing anything wrong, they did make some changes to their procedures and directed the Civil Right's Action Team (CRAT) to investigate. "CRAT issued a thick report confirming that black farmers had been denied equal access to credit"
The case was adjudicated in favor of the farmers. Qualifying farmers could either "be paid $50,000 tax- free and would possibly have their government loans erased." or, through hearings "before a court-appointed independent arbitrator to seek larger damages." But, that was just the beginning, the fraud and corruption had just begun. As Breitbart explains:
"The original estimate on both sides of the lawsuit was that the number of claimants would total between 1,000-4,000. But what started out, as a relatively small case of perhaps 4,000 claimants at most, is today a multi-billion dollar settlement with over 94,000 claimants. What makes that figure so problematic is that during the years the alleged racial discrimination took place (1981-1996), there were never more than 33,000 black farmers total in the entire United States according to the census bureau."FBI investigations estimated that at least half of the claims against Pigford were false...before the investigation was shut down. There were aplicants who lived in suburbs and urban areas, who never farmed in their lives. One USDA whistle blower reported that "“Pigford was basically legalized extortion. It reached the point where they were just handing money to people." "The legal standard was supposed to be a preponderance of evidence,” says another employee, “but soon they pretty much gave money to whoever filled out a form.”
Pigford began to be seen by activists and some in government as deserved reparations to blacks for the past sin of slavery, which has long been a goal of black activists. Gary Grant, President of the Black Farmers and Agriculturalists Association said, “If you are an African-American, you deserve $50,000 because your roots are in farming and your folks have already been cheated. You are collecting what your grandparents didn’t have the opportunity to.” These activist groups used the Pigford case as litmus test for political support. As long as candidates promised to keep the gravy train running with continued Pigford payouts, the groups will deliver the votes.
Since not enough people were able to get in on Pigford, Congress is working on Pigford II, sponsored by then-Senator Barack Obama. This incarnation offers up $1.25 billion in taxpayer money. It also opens the door to claims by Hispanics, Native Americans and women to get their peice of the pie...seems we're all farmers now.
While the Crew of 42 blog on black members of the 112th congress decries the so-called raising of the bar for payouts to black applicants, they never really deny that there is fraud. In fact, they quote Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) concerning changes made to Pigford II to raise the eligibility bar saying, “There’s fraud in everything the government does. There’s just not gonna be as much fraud.” Well, I feel better, how about you?
There are many more details to this case. Facts like the largest recipient of Pigford I was Shirley Sharrod, the USDA employee who was caught up in the NAACP racism charges and who was fired...then re-hired. Her and her husband received over $13 million. The next largest award was $675,000. The fact that Obama has seemed to use this fraud as a pay-off for votes. The fact that officials have seemed to turn a blind eye to the corruption, either through lack of political backbone...or for personal gain. And then there is the hundreds of millions of dollars paid out to the attorneys. The details are still emerging.
As Breitbart concludes:
"This embezzlement of taxpayer money, possibly to the tune of billions of dollars, demands congressional attention. At the very least, it would seem prudent to have a congressional investigation into the very real possibility that over a billion dollars of taxpayer money is going to fraudulent claims into what ostensibly began as a legitimate grievance by a few thousand black farmers."
In the video below, Jimmy Dismuke, a real farmer and qualified recipient of Pigford I tells of the fraud perpetrated by attorneys in recruiting claimants for the class-action suit.
Additional information:
Me & Mrs. Sherrod — And The $1.25 Billion Pigford II Black Farmers’ Settlement
