A monstrous gift to a Florida university that would’ve changed its future and the lives of many associated with the university has been placed “on hold” in the wake of calculated skepticism about the source of the money.
Florida A&M University, a historically black university, received an alleged $237 million donation from a 30-year-old Texas hemp farming executive, who already failed to donate a large gift to Coastal Carolina University — one that would’ve nearly tripled the school’s endowment.
“With regards to the gift and the processing of it and so forth, in terms of future processing, we’ve already decided it’s in our best interest to put that on hold,” FAMU President Larry Robinson said during a meeting discussing the donation.
The gift is in the form of millions of shares of stock from Batterson Farms Corporation — a seemingly small business selling hydroponic hemp farm products. Its CEO, Gregory Gerami, gave the gift to the university before it announced it at the school’s graduation ceremony, and officials were bound by a nondisclosure agreement preventing them from discussing it.
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