Source: NBC News
“Rather than paying back the small farmers what they owed, Budd’s family repaid themselves instead—millions of dollars, with interest,” a new ad from Senate Majority PAC claims.
“That’s the real Ted Budd,” the narrator says. “He gets paid while North Carolina farmers get screwed.”
The ad cites a recent story in the Washington Post that details his involvement in a company called AgriBioTec which declared bankruptcy and left farmers with millions in losses.
According to court documents, Budd’s father Richard transferred millions of dollars from the company to his own family which included Ted Budd. Both Richard and Ted were named defendants in a case that accused them of fraud and faced them with a possible $15 million judgment against them.
In the end, the case was settled with no admission of guilt. The “Budd entities” agreed to pay less than half of the amount initially earmarked for the farmers and other creditors leaving farmers angry as they were unable to recover their lost earnings.
As Budd campaigns around the state claiming his acumen as a businessman we should remember the people who were hurt as he benefited financially from his father’s alleged fraud.
