This. is. a. mess.
Source: Zack Wittman for The Washington Post via Getty Images / Getty
Last week, investigators officially found what anyone who has been following the curious case of Texas hemp farmer Gregory Gerami’s $237 million donation to Florida A&M University likely already knew—the donation was faker than a $2 bill.
That’s right, the 176-page Major Gift Investigation Final Report written by Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney, the law firm hired to investigate the debacle, determined that Gerami’s stock donation to the HBCU was “fraudulent,” and that school administrators failed to vet the donation or its donor, indicating “a fundamental misunderstanding of the complexities associated with private stock donations.” (What’s worse is the guy who offered the stock donation also didn’t seem to understand how they work.)
Now that the mystery has ended in the most predictable way it could have ended—with the donation exposed as faker than George Santos‘ resume, Hershel Walker’s police badge, and Donald Trump’s understanding of how facts, integrity, and complete sentences work—administrative heads are continuing to roll at FAMU.
As previously reported, FAMU President Dr. Larry Robinson already resigned, and now more members of his team are following suit.
According to WCTV, Interim President Dr. Timothy Beard sent out a letter to FAMU’s senior leadership team Monday demanding that 19 members of the team resign from their positions effective on Tuesday.
“As you know, our University (FAMU) is at a critical juncture, where we must align our leadership, vision, and strategies to meet the evolving challenges and opportunities ahead,” Dr. Beard wrote in the letter. “After careful consideration and in consultation with the Board of Trustees, the past University President, and from my observations, I have concluded that a change in our senior leadership team is necessary to move forward more effectively.”
As of Wednesday, Beard has reportedly accepted the resignations of four administrators: Athletic Director Tiffani-Dawn Sykes, Communications Director Keith Miles, Vice President of Legal Affairs/General Counsel Denise Wallace, and Director of Government Relations Danielle McBeth. These resignations come a month after FAMU’s beloved president, Dr. Larry Robinson, handed in his walking papers in July, and three months after Shawnta Friday-Stroud, former executive director of the FAMU Foundation, resigned from her post.
On Thursday, FAMU Interim President Timothy Beard spoke out on his decision to fire several members of the university’s senior leadership staff.
“As part of the 100-day action plan that I’ve shared with the senior leadership, it involves an evaluation and assessment of management,” WUSF reports Beard said. “It’s an opportunity for me to really look in terms of the synergy of the team, and what’s going to be the best interest of FAMU going forward.”
The real question here is: What was Gregory Gerami even trying to pull here? The so-called businessman went out of his way to bless a Black college with a massive donation that turned out to be faker than Kim Kardashian’s Black woman aesthetic, why?
What did he accomplish besides causing all-out turmoil at FAMU, which ended in the HBCU being humiliated and an avalanche of now-former school officials falling from grace?
We could call Gerami a grifter, but what was even the grift?
