Black farmer being threatened—Again!

Harry Young, an 81 year old black farmer out of Owensboro Kentucky continues his efforts to reclaim his farm from what many far activists say is an illegal auction. In the process, he has made a boatload of enemies, including a group of white supremacists, who were reportedly meeting on his rented fields several months ago.

When he secured the property with a chain and lock, they reportedly drove a tractor out to the property and yanked the 10-inch diameter gateposts out of the ground. When he went to the local law enforcement agency, a dispatcher told him there was nothing they could do because the road was a “right of way”—notwithstanding the fact that local property records disclaim the fact and show no right of way.

He has endured threatening phone calls, vandalism, shots fired at his house and yet he continues to speak out for himself and other middle class family farmers of all races. He has testified at several congressional hearings in Washington and continues to lobby various members of Congress to act.

In the last 2 years his property has been vandalized, vandals have destroyed or stolen protest signs, which ring the frontage of his property. His house has been shot at, and now, someone left a threat on his answering machine that was so terroristic, that the county sheriff has advised him to start packing a pistol when he goes to work in this tobacco fields.

Mr. Young inherited his land from his father, who added to the family holdings that his own father, Harry Young’s grandfather purchased. All told, Mr. Young is the last black farmer in three Kentucky counties and the loss of his ancestral property through alleged fraud, forgery and misrepresentation has been devastating.

He and others see the sale as an illegal foreclosure and sale, and yet, he can’t get anyone to investigate the possible fraud, forgery and document deception which many say are hallmarks of his case. He particularly can’t understand why many people, some in government, think he is not accurately representing what happened to him, when the actions which led to his property being foreclosed on mirror the very tactics which have been the hallmark of the mortgage fraud scandal.

Forgery, document manipulation, theft by deception, destroying documents, insider fraud—it’s been used in the mortgage game for years. By the government’s own account, employees of the Farm Service Agency have been arrested for alleged involvement in


What seems to irk the “establishment” and local race baiters and domestic terrorists is the fact that he just won’t surrender and give up.

The auction of his property happened 2 years ago. The window for him to repurchase the property and his “right of redemption” has long since expired. But, property rights activists all over the nation say it isn’t over yet, because this case is reportedly rife with fraud, and there is no statute of limitations on fraud.

The Young property contains millions of dollars worth of coal and oil. The coal reserves alone are reportedly worth as much as $750,000,000. That’s three quarter of a billion dollars in coal alone.

At one time, Harry Young was reportedly the only black coal operator in the nation. His price for coal delivered to the TVA (Tennessee Valley Authority) was reportedly several dollars cheaper a ton than one of the largest coal companies in the nation. Yet, he was allegedly blackballed from selling to TVA, at a time when the company was allegedly seeking “minority coal suppliers.” Yes, “seeking minority coal suppliers” when they had one sitting right under their noses.

These kinds of economic suppression tactics targeting black and family farmers continue to take money out of the mouths of farmers whose families have been farming for generations.

One of the things which gets the goat of many small family farmers is the so-called tobacco buyout. Reportedly, under this “buyout”, there is more tobacco being grown in the state of Kentucky now, than at any other time in history.

The small farmers are being squeezed out of the industry by the so-called buy out, while the larger farmers are reportedly growing massive amounts of the crop. Many small family farmers are at their wits end, because they can’t grow tobacco and there are no other legal crops, which approach tobacco as a cash crop.

Young’s outspokenness on part of small farmers and minority farmers is not going over well among the local supremacists, who can’t stand the idea of a black land owner, let alone one who won’t shut up about injustice—particularly his own.

Several farmers nationwide have asked various federal oversight and auditing authorities to investigate local Farm Service Agency offices. According to a training seminar operated by a fraud inspector with the federal government, several federal statutes apply to most of these fraud cases:
General Criminal statutes are also found in Title 18 of the USC. Some common one that we use are:
18 USC 371: Conspiracy to Commit Offense or to Defraud United States
18 USC 641: Public Money, Property, or Records
18 USC 666: Theft or Bribery Concerning Programs Receiving Federal Funds.
18 USC 1001: Statements or Entries Generally (False Statements)
18 USC 1341: Frauds and Swindles (Mail Fraud) Also includes Fed-Ex, etc
18 USC 1343: Wire Fraud
18 USC 1344: Bank Fraud
18 USC 1516: Obstruction of Federal Audit
Depending on the circumstances, civil False Claims actions may also be filed. (Bad Boys, Bad Boys ….. Student Loan Fraud and How the Crooks Get Caught)
There is a very clear federal statute, which applies to falsifying federal credit applications to the federal farm loan agencies. Penalties apply to “whomever” makes false statement, reports, or overvalues property as an attempt to influence the federal farm loan agency. See the statute below:
TITLE 18 > PART I > CHAPTER 47 > § 1014

§ 1014. Loan and credit applications generally; renewals and discounts; crop insurance
Whoever knowingly makes any false statement or report, or willfully overvalues any land, property or security, for the purpose of influencing in any way the action of the Farm Credit Administration, Federal Crop Insurance Corporation or a company the Corporation reinsures, the Secretary of Agriculture acting through the Farmers Home Administration or successor agency, the Rural Development Administration or successor agency, any Farm Credit Bank, production credit association, agricultural credit association, bank for cooperatives, or any division, officer, or employee thereof, or of any regional agricultural credit corporation established pursuant to law, or a Federal land bank, a Federal land bank association, a Federal Reserve bank, a small business investment company, as defined in section 103 of the Small Business Investment Act of 1958 (15 U.S.C. 662), or the Small Business Administration in connection with any provision of that Act, a Federal credit union, an insured State-chartered credit union, any institution the accounts of which are insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Office of Thrift Supervision, any Federal home loan bank, the Federal Housing Finance Board, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Resolution Trust Corporation, the Farm Credit System Insurance Corporation, or the National Credit Union Administration Board, a branch or agency of a foreign bank (as such terms are defined in paragraphs (1) and (3) of section 1(b) of the International Banking Act of 1978), or an organization operating under section 25 or section 25(a) [1] of the Federal Reserve Act, upon any application, advance, discount, purchase, purchase agreement, repurchase agreement, commitment, or loan, or any change or extension of any of the same, by renewal, deferment of action or otherwise, or the acceptance, release, or substitution of security therefor, shall be fined not more than $1,000,000 or imprisoned not more than 30 years, or both. The term “State-chartered credit union” includes a credit union chartered under the laws of a State of the United States, the District of Columbia, or any commonwealth, territory, or possession of the United States.

Now, if your eyes are still in focus after reading that, understand this: federal laws have been written to prosecute anyone in or out of the government for trying to influence the loan process with bogus information or manipulated documents. That being the case, ask yourself why so few people within the federal loan apparatus have been indicted on loan fraud, when a massive amount of anecdotal evidence suggests that there is at least as much fraud in the federal farm loan offices as there is in the mortgage industry?

One farmer in eastern Indiana claims a farm loan agent cut her signature off of a loan application. Another in Kansas says a loan officer switched his social security number with that of a black farmer, an action that continues to cause problems for both loan applicants.
The amount of “statements or Entries Generally (False Statements), violations of 18 USC 1001 are staggering. In the farm loan industry alone, they number in the tens of thousands.

Harry Young’s case violates several aspects of federal law, including, but not limited to: Civil Rights law, fraud and forgery statutes, obstruction of justice laws, and various and sundry prohibitions against conspiracy, bank fraud and false statement laws.

Young and others continue to file Freedom of Information (FOI) requests with the Farm Service Agency regarding their cases, but many have either been ignored, or receive information which has little if any bearing on the information requested. This, despite an attempt by the Bush Administration, to improve information disclosure.

On December 14, 2005, the President issued Executive Order 13,392 on "Improving Agency Disclosure of Information." In the Order, the President stated that "[t]he effective functioning of our constitutional democracy depends upon the participation in public life of a citizenry that is well informed," and that "the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) has provided an important means through which the public can obtain information regarding the activities of Federal agencies." (DOJ press release)

Young has been on the receiving end of terroristic threats and unconstitutional actions from within and outside the federal farm loan bureaucracy. He says he still has faith in the United States as a nation, but the actions of some of its citizens and government employees leave him bitterly disappointed.

As a sign in his front yard reads, “How can this happen in America?”