DENVER,
July 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/
-- Farmland Partners Inc. (NYSE: FPI) ("FPI," and
"Company"), today announced that it has filed a lawsuit in District
Court, Denver County, Colorado
against "Rota Fortunae" (a pseudonym), and numerous other
individuals and entities who worked with or for Rota Fortunae
(collectively, "Wheel of Fortune") in conducting a "short and
distort" scheme to profit from the precipitous decline in the
Company's stock price resulting from Wheel of Fortune's false and
misleading internet posting on Seeking Alpha. The lawsuit alleges
Wheel of Fortune used Seeking Alpha to disseminate material false,
misleading, and defamatory information about FPI and its
management, and is engaging in other misconduct that has harmed the
Company and its stockholders. A copy of the complaint
will be available on the Investor Relations section of the
Company's website once it is available.
The complaint alleges that the defendants accumulated
substantial short positions in FPI stock in advance of the release
of an intentionally false and misleading posting on Seeking Alpha
that was designed to cause panicked selling among FPI's
stockholders and generate ill-gotten profits at the expense of the
Company and its stockholders. FPI seeks damages and injunctive
relief for defamation, defamation by libel per se, disparagement,
intentional interference with prospective business relations,
unjust enrichment, deceptive trade practices and civil
conspiracy.
The filing of this lawsuit marks another important step in
FPI's vigorous defense of itself and the Company's stakeholders,
and follows the Company's July 11 and
July 17, 2018, press releases
rebutting false and misleading claims about the Company.
The Company has retained Morrison & Foerster LLP, to
investigate and pursue all available legal remedies against those
responsible for these blatant attempts at market manipulation.
Counsel is continuing its investigation.
About Farmland Partners Inc.
Farmland Partners Inc. 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. As of the date of this release, the Company owns or has
under contract over 165,000 acres in 17 states, including
Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Nebraska, North
Carolina, South Carolina,
South Dakota, Texas and Virginia. We have approximately 30 crop types
and over 100 tenants. The Company elected to be taxed as a real
estate investment trust, or REIT, for U.S. federal income tax
purposes, commencing with the taxable year ended December 31, 2014.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release includes "forward-looking statements"
within the meaning of the federal securities laws. Forward-looking
statements generally can be identified by the use of
forward-looking terminology such as "may," "should," "could,"
"would," "predicts," "potential," "continue," "expects,"
"anticipates," "future," "intends," "plans," "believes,"
"estimates" or similar expressions or their negatives, as well as
statements in future tense. Although the Company believes that the
expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are based
upon reasonable assumptions, beliefs and expectations, such
forward-looking statements are not predictions of future events or
guarantees of future performance and our actual results could
differ materially from those set forth in the forward-looking
statements. Some factors that might cause such a difference include
the following: the litigation discussed in this press release and
related matters, general volatility of the capital markets and the
market price of the Company's common stock or Series B
participating preferred stock, changes in the Company's business
strategy, availability, terms and deployment of capital, the
Company's ability to refinance existing indebtedness at or prior to
maturity on favorable terms, or at all, availability of qualified
personnel, changes in the Company's industry, interest rates or the
general economy, adverse developments related to crop yields or
crop prices, the degree and nature of the Company's competition,
the timing, price or amount of repurchases, if any, under the
Company's share repurchase program, the ability to consummate
acquisitions under contract and the other factors described in the
section entitled "Risk Factors" in our Annual Report on
Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2017, and our
other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Any forward-looking information presented herein is made only as of
the date of this press release, and we do not undertake any
obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information to
reflect changes in assumptions, the occurrence of unanticipated
events, or otherwise.
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SOURCE Farmland Partners Inc.