federal income tax purposes, commencing with the taxable year ended December 31, 2014. The Company elected to be taxed as a real estate investment trust, or REIT, for U.S. We have approximately 26 crop types and more than 100 tenants. As of the date of this release, the Company owns and/or manages nearly 187,000 acres in 19 states, including Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North Carolina, South Carolina, South Dakota and Virginia. is an internally managed real estate company that owns and seeks to acquire high-quality North American farmland and makes loans to farmers secured by farm real estate.

The court’s ruling can be read in its entirety at. įPI is still pursuing litigation against the hedge fund that hired Mathews. In June 2021, Quinton Mathews, the previously anonymous author of the 2018 accusations against the Company, admitted the falsity of his work, acknowledged he was hired by a hedge fund that shorted FPI stock, and agreed to return a multiple of the trading profits he gained. We are thankful that the court rightly ruled in our favor and put an end to this frivolous litigation and its continuing cost to our shareholders.” “Even though we were successful in unmasking the perpetrators and the falsity of this blatantly manipulative scheme, we nevertheless have had to continue to defend the resulting class action lawsuit at significant corporate expense. “We were the target of short-sellers who knowingly published false information about our company to manipulate FPI’s stock price in order to earn large profits for themselves and at the expense of our shareholders,” he explained. “After nearly four years, this judgment on the merits should finally slam the door on the baseless attacks against our company, its leadership, and most importantly its shareholders,” said FPI Chairman and CEO Paul Pittman, who was named in the class action lawsuit. FPI is unable to predict whether the plaintiff will appeal the court’s ruling. The court went on to dismiss each of plaintiff’s claims with prejudice, including claims relating to FPI’s loan program, alleged related party transactions, and allegations that FPI’s executives sought to defraud investors. In a 21-page reasoned order, the court granted FPI’s Motion for Summary Judgment, ruling that no jury could reasonably find in plaintiff’s favor on claims stemming from a July 2018 attack published on the financial website “Seeking Alpha” as part of a short and distort scheme targeting FPI, management, and its stockholders.Īs noted in the court’s order, the author of the Seeking Alpha publication “since admitted that several of the allegations were inaccurate,” and that “he and his clients – particularly a hedge fund called Sabrepoint Capital – shorted Farmland stock before the Report was published and profited off the ensuing price drop.” (NYSE: FPI) (the “Company” or “FPI”) and its management team after FPI’s stock price dropped sharply immediately following the short and distort scheme against the Company in the summer of 2018.

District Court in Colorado yesterday dismissed with prejudice the class action lawsuit brought against Farmland Partners Inc.

Class actio lawsuits april 2018