*heavy HBCU sigh*
Supply: Zack Wittman for The Washington Publish by way of Getty Photographs / Getty
The saga behind the curious case of Batterson Seventh Household Belief CEO Gregory Gerami and the $237,750,000 donation he pledged to Florida A&M College continues because the “businessman’s” present of philanthropy continues to be wanting an increasing number of doubtful the extra we study bout it. In accordance with the Miami Herald, the donation nobody appears to have the ability to show exists—which has already resulted in administrative resignations, infighting between members of FAMU’s board of trustees, an announcement by FAMU President Larry Robinson that the reward transaction has been “ceased,” and the revelation that an individual cited on Batterson’s web site because the co-CEO of the corporate by no means truly labored for the corporate—is below much more scrutiny now that an electronic mail from the donor’s financial institution has raised yet one more purple flag indicating that the historic donation will not be official.
From the Herald:
Inner emails lately launched by the college to The Solar Information present that weeks earlier than donor Gregory Gerami introduced an outsized test at FAMU’s commencement ceremony, a Raymond James Monetary Providers govt advised FAMU officers that earlier assurances they supplied of Gerami’s account steadiness weren’t correct.
“On February 1 and March 1, 2024, Raymond James issued a letter to shopper, Gregory Gerami, reflecting the steadiness in his account,” Kirk Bell, a senior vp at Raymond James, wrote on April 12. “Efficient April tenth, 2024, Raymond James will now not present a price for the securities in Mr. Gerami’s account and now not stand by the verification of deposit letter you’ll have acquired.
“To the extent that Mr. Gerami has or does offer you official account statements from Raymond James, we don’t imagine the pricing of sure securities was correct.”
Sooner or later, it simply turns into actually troublesome to have a look at a factor that appeared too good to be true from the beginning and never lastly say: “Nah—this gotta be a rip-off.”
In fact, within the case of Gerami and his elusive “reward” to FAMU—can it even actually be referred to as a rip-off? Grifters sometimes do what they do for monetary acquire. If Gerami is a grifter, what’s the grift? What’s the tip recreation in pledging 9 figures he, apparently, doesn’t have to a school simply to show round and say, “Sike, made you look” after permitting directors to make a public present of receiving the donation they by no means truly acquired?
Final month, former Tallahassee mayor and FAMU alum Andrew Gillum referred to as Gerami a “hoaxer,” which will surely be extra correct, however, nonetheless, the query is—why?
Nonetheless, Gerami has been standing by his phrase that what seems to be a phantom donation is, in reality, actual. In accordance with the Herald, FAMU’s investigation into the donation is about to be accomplished by Aug. 30.
The board of trustees employed Buchanon, Ingersoll, and Rooney regulation agency to conduct the investigation and it’s being overseen by the Florida Board of Governors.