It’s hard not to be ecstatic about a $237.75 million donation to any educational organization, especially historically black colleges and universities. Florida Agricultural & Mechanical University (FAMU) president Larry Robinson was gleeful and already picturing the possibilities of what the HBCU could do with those funds. The donor, who initially requested to be anonymous, agreed to distribute 14 million shares of stock of intrinsic value plus an additional $61 million over the course of 10 years.
Unfortunately, that donation from what we now know as the (former) Isaac Batterson Family 7th Trust and Batterson Farms CEO Gregory Gerami didn’t hold up. With minimal information about the CEO and even less about the company, FAMU had to pause the donation.
“I take full responsibility for this matter and the ensuing fallout,” Robinson told FAMU trustees, according to a Forbes report. “I wanted it to be real and ignored the warning signs along the way. There was no personal gain, but the impact on our students and our university would have been extraordinary.”
What Is Batterson Farm Corp’s Net Worth?
The Texas company Batterson Farms Corp. was definitely not a multi-million dollar company that could even slightly afford this kind of donation, nor was its 30-year-old CEO. The donation was “invalidated” less than two weeks after a graduation ceremony announcement at FAMU on May 4, 2024.
Gerami, who is indeed a real person and (according to The Texas Hemp Reporter) “the youngest African American producer and seed seller in the state,” did have a business background of sorts. Said to have been mentored by Robert Cluck (the former Mayor of Arlington) and a local Merrill Lynch banker, Gerami is believed to have used his entrepreneurial dreams to create a small-scale hydroponic farming and hemp plastic company in 2021. (This article “From Humble Beginnings to Agricultural Innovation: The Gregory Gerami Journey” is no longer visible on the Texas Hemp Reporter website.)
However, Gerami reportedly violated his equity management account’s terms by improperly transferring 15 million stock shares, 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 (10 days after the graduation photo was taken), all stock certificates in FAMU Foundation’s possession were canceled.
Although the CEO even showed up to FAMU and posed with a jumbo check for the massive donation, it ended up being a photo op with no monetary value. Additionally, the FAMU Foundation never countersigned the gift agreement to validate the (incorrect) version shown at the graduation ceremony.
There have been no updates in over two years regarding Gerami’s Instagram posts about a “Gracie G” jewelry line announced under the Batterson Farms brand.
