Having received many calls regarding the VeraSun Bankruptcy situation and the attempts that are being made to recover money from corn suppliers, Roger McEowen, Center of Agricultural Law and Taxation (CALT) director, has written a detailed article (available on the CALT website) outlining what this means to parties that supplied corn to VeraSun within 90 days of the bankruptcy filing. Legal counsel for the "reorganized debtors" has sent letters to these parties offering to settle preference claims.
If you sold corn to VeraSun within 90 days of its bankruptcy filing, the company attorneys want 80% of your payment returned. Bankruptcy laws allow such a demand because that money would likely have been more than a farmer would have received if he had been a typical creditor. More information about the ruling is available at Farmgate. University of Nebraska-Lincoln Ag Law Specialist David Aiken says it is important that farmers get an attorney if they get a letter.
