To date, the Delaware-based company has spent about $800 million to purchase at least 52,000 acres of agricultural land, becoming the area’s biggest landowner. (Representative image) (REUTERS)

Farmers Accuse Tech Giants of Employing Coercive Tactics to Acquire Land for Private City

According to court documents, a consortium of landowners alleges that a company supported by Silicon Valley has employed unjust and coercive methods to compel farmers to sell their land for the construction of an eco-friendly city near San Francisco. These tactics reportedly involve creating conflicts among family members.

The details were revealed Friday as part of a lawsuit filed in May by Flannery Associates LLC in Sacramento District Court, alleging that several farmers conspired to inflate the value of their land by $170 million. The landowners are contesting the lawsuit and asking for the lawsuit to be dismissed.

The latest allegations, contained in a report on the bipartisan conference in September, provide the most complete account yet of the landowners’ allegations against Flannery, who has been backed by former Sequoia Capital chairman Mike Moritz and LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman. and, among others, venture capitalist Marc Andreessen.

According to the defendants, Flannery forced farmers who did not want to sell off their land, forced property sales by evicting farmers and terminating leases, misled landowners and used expensive legal fees to get them to sell.

A spokesperson for Flannery said in an email to Bloomberg that the company has concrete evidence of price fixing and has offered reasonable settlements to individuals and is willing to settle with other defendants.

In one case, defendants claim that seven of eight landowners from the same family wanted to continue farming, while one wanted to sell. Flannery then allegedly used a “divide and rule” scheme, buying one-eighth of the stock and suing the other seven family members to get the remaining shares, according to the filing.

So far, the Delaware-based company has spent about $800 million to buy at least 52,000 acres of farmland, becoming the region’s largest landowner. It is seeking $510 million in damages from landowners, triple the amount allegedly increased by price fixing.

In late August, the New York Times and other media outlets revealed the company’s plan to build a new city called California Forever, a walkable, green community that would create thousands of jobs. The project is led by Jan Sramek, a 36-year-old former Goldman Sachs trader. There has been a backlash from some local city leaders and politicians who have expressed concerns about the lack of transparency in the process.