Mysterious Land Acquisition Group Sues Farmers After Buying Land Surrounding Air Force Base; Now mystery company that’s bought 55,000 acres of land surrounding a major air force base in California for $800M is SUING farmers for ‘inflating the price’ – as questions remain about it being owned by a hostile power

Mysterious Land Acquisition Group Sues Farmers After Buying Land Surrounding Air Force Base

An agriculture land acquisition company that is reported to have bought up land on three sides of a major U.S. Air Force base in California is now suing the farmers who sold them the land.

Flannery Associates LLC spent nearly $800 million to buy the land surrounding Travis Air Force Base, then filed a $510 million lawsuit in May against the farmers.

Rep. John Garamendi (D-Calif.) told NewsNation the suit is likely a tactic to financially destroy the farmers.

Mr. Garamendi said some of the families he has spoken to did not want to sell to Flannery, but the company made them offers for huge amounts. Flannery’s lawsuit accuses the farmers of conspiring to inflate the price of the farms.

“It’s a suit designed to force the farmers to lawyer up, spend tens of thousands of dollars on lawyering, and maybe at the end of the day, bankrupt themselves,” Mr. Garamendi said. “In fact, that has happened to at least one family that I know of and I’ve heard rumors that another family simply said we can’t afford the lawyers.”

Intimidation Suspected

According to The Wall Street Journal, the U.S. Air Force’s Foreign Investment Risk Review Office has not been able to determine who is funding the purchases, even after an 18-month investigation into the purchase of the 140 properties around the Air Force base.

Based on property records, the land covers California’s Solano County from the Sacramento River to Fairfield, including land directly bordering three sides of the Air Force base, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Sarah Donnelly is a member of the city council for Rio Vista, California, which borders the land purchased by Flannery. She said she is highly suspicious of Flannery’s motives.

“The Flannery group is an unknown entity,” Ms. Donnelly told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement. “Based on the fact that they are suing our farmers, their intentions are suspect.”

“I can only assume they are suing as a form of intimidation,” she added. —>READ MORE HERE

Now mystery company that’s bought 55,000 acres of land surrounding a major air force base in California for $800M is SUING farmers for ‘inflating the price’ – as questions remain about it being owned by a hostile power:

A mysterious company that bought more than 50,000 acres of land around an Air Force base in California for $800million is now suing farmers for conspiring to sell it at inflated prices.

Public records show ‘Flannery Associates’ has invested more than $800million on around 55,000 acres of land surrounding the Travis Air Force base since 2018.

Flannery is now suing local farming families for $510million, accusing them of ‘acting in flagrant disregard of federal and state law’ by conspiring to inflate the value of the land it sold them.

Travis Air Force base, northeast of San Francisco, is a strategically significant base that serves as a ‘gateway’ to the Pacific Ocean. It houses large transport aircraft used for refueling smaller planes and sending aid and munitions around the world.

But Rep. John Garamendi, D-Calif. now claims that lawsuit is in fact part of a scheme to bankrupt the farmers and has a ‘deep suspicion’ the chunks of land are being bought by a group linked to China.

In its initial complaint Flannery claims it has ‘smoking gun’ evidence, including text messages and emails between sellers that reveal they were illegally colluding to sell the farmland for a ‘substantial premium to fair market values’.

Garamendi told NewsNation he has spoken with the families who sold their land to Flannery who claim they didn’t want to sell in the first place.

He also said that there was nothing obligating Flannery to pay what it now claims is more than market value for the land.

While he said that although there was no direct evidence Flannery is linked to China there were ‘deep suspicions’.

An attorney representing Flannery has said the group is controlled by US citizens and that 97 percent of its capital comes from American investors – with the remaining investments coming from British and Irish citizens.

Nonetheless, after eight months of investigation the Air Force’s ‘Foreign Investment Risk Review Office’ is yet to identify even one person that is part of the group. ––>READ MORE HERE

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