Florida A&M has paused the alleged $237 million gift from Gregory Gerami after massive skepticism over the validity of the donation following the announcement on Saturday. Florida A&M President Dr. Larry Robinson announced the decision in an emergency meeting with the FAMU Foundation on Thursday afternoon.

“With regards to the gift and the processing of it and so forth, in terms of future processing, we’ve already decided it’s in our best interest to put that on hold,” he said during the meeting.

Robinson reported that the school would pause progress until assessing the value of the stocks gifted by Gregory Gerami, CEO of Batterson Farms Corp and a trustee of the Isaac Batterson Family 7th Trust that made the donation. FAMU is set to probe the circumstances surrounding Gerami's announcement of the gift during the spring graduation ceremony.

There are a number of factors swirling around the situation that triggered concern from the FAMU and HBCU community. First, little is known about Gregory Gerami, the Issac Batterson 7th Family Trust or Gerami's company, the Batterson Farms Corporation. Google searches of Gerami prior to the announcement of the alleged $237 million gift led to limited results.

Following growing skepticism about Gerami and his donation, Florida A&M's Office of Communications released a statement, saying,

“While Florida A&M University (FAMU) is still extremely excited about Mr. Gregory Gerami's historic announcement yesterday of the Isaac Batterson Family 7th Trust, we are fully aware of the skepticism that sometimes comes with such a large gift.

As expected, some individuals in the public are and will continue researching Mr. Gerami. Please know that FAMU has done its due diligence when it comes to this matter. Additionally, Mr. Gerami has and continues to do his own due diligence on things that have been and are happening at FAMU.

While a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) we signed prevents us from disclosing many details, as was reported on May 4 – Mr. Gerami transferred $237,750,000 worth of stocks into our account last month. Mr. Gerami's $237,750,000 stock transfer was received in the same manner in which we have accepted all other stocks donated to the University through the FAMU Foundation Inc. As with any non-cash gift received, such as cryptocurrency, real estate, and stocks, it will be converted to cash and recorded appropriately.

Again, we greatly appreciate Mr. Gerami's and the Isaac Batterson Family 7th Trust's generosity. Our students will be the true beneficiaries of their most generous contribution.”

Previous attempts at donations for Gerami to two other institutions have not materialized. Gerami was slated to donate $95 million to Coastal Carolina anonymously in 2020, per a report by The Sun News in June 2023, but talks fell through because Gerami felt disrespected.

“If you can’t hold to y’all word and verbal agreement as such is in Alabama and Texas the time of the agreement, then I have nothing else to say to ccu or to deal with ccu,” Gerami reportedly sent to former Coastal Carolina President David DeCenzo and Bryan Steros, former interim vice president for philanthropy in September 2020.

The Sun News report also reports that he was slated to donate money to Miles College. However, the donation was never allocated.

New reporting revealed by local Tallahassee affiliate ABC67 disclosed the contents of the gift agreement for the $237 million donation. As per the agreement, the Isaac Batterson Family 7th Trust gifted 14 million shares of stock with an intrinsic value of at least $239,000,000. Additionally, they will contribute an extra $61,000,000 over the next decade as per a mutually agreed schedule. The valuation method and specifics of the transferred stocks remain ambiguous. These numbers contrast with the announcement made by Florida A&M on Saturday.

Board members expressed their lack of knowledge about the supposed donation until its public announcement at the graduation ceremony.

“The board got no official notice about this until Sunday afternoon. That's very, very problematic,” said Board member Chekesha Kidd.

Robinson and Shawnta Friday-Stroud, the executive director of the FAMU Foundation, frequently mentioned a signed non-disclosure agreement as the rationale for not disclosing the information.

Friday-Stroud's account of discussions with Gerami regarding donations to the institution and the developments leading to his commencement speech and the alleged donation revealed that Florida A&M had not contacted Coastal Carolina or Miles College to verify Gerami's background and history of interactions with them.

“After having several conversations with Mr. Gerami, Ms. Simmons-Smith put together a proposal of certain programs that she thought he might be interested in supporting. She also had an initial screening done of him…From there, we decided on an initial amount based on what he was interested in supporting here at FAMU. After having conversations with those individuals, we came up with an amount.”

Gerami aimed to increase his “donation” after hearing that Spelman College received a $100 million donation from philanthropist Rhonda Stryker and her husband, William Johnston, Chairman of Greenleaf Trust, in mid-January. Stryker's single donation was noted as the largest ever to an HBCU. Unlike Gerami, Stryker has a long-standing connection with Spelman. She has been a Spelman College Trustee since 1997, serving for 27 years.

Florida A&M's Board of Trustees is set to meet on Wednesday, May 15th at 3 PM EST, in which they are expected to fully access the alleged $237 million donation and the circumstances around it.