Florida A&M pauses purported $237.75 million donation after questions about validity

Florida A&M University is putting a purported $237.75 million donation “on pause,” after media reports and college board leaders raised concerns about the actual value of the stock gift—and the details surrounding the donor’s previous donations.

Florida A&M University is putting a purported $237.75 million donation “on pause,” after media reports and college board leaders raised concerns about the actual value of the stock gift—and the details surrounding the donor’s previous donations. “A decision that was made yesterday to put a pause on this activity—a hold, is more or less, is the language that was used—pending some additional information that has come to my attention,” FAMU President Larry Robinson said Thursday during an emergency school board meeting, called after media reports and school leaders raised concerns about the legitimacy of the gift. It’s a stunning reversal from the fanfare last Saturday at FAMU’s commencement ceremony, when the announcement of the gift made headlines as one of the largest ever personal donations ever to a historically Black college or university. Gregory Gerami, the 30-year-old CEO of Texas hydroponic hemp farm company Batterson Farms Corp., presented the $237.75 million stock gift via an oversized, ceremonial check to university administration members including Robinson, who called the gift “breathtaking in its generosity and its scope” via a press release the day of the donation. But the jubilance quickly gave way to skepticism. A report from Politico noted Batterson Farms Corp. is a comparatively small company, and that its private shares are unlikely to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars.