Federal agents raided the North Naples home of grocery magnate Francis Alfred “Alfie” Oakes III and the Immokalee packaging plant, transporting boxes all day and all night on November 7.
The raid involving the U.S. Secret Service, Defense Criminal Investigative Services and the IRS came a week after Oakes’ wife, Deanne, was served for the second time with garnishment papers on a $4.1 million federal farm loan, according to a lawsuit filed on October 14. is seeking $2.78 million from the couple and Oakes Farms OP. They faced seizure of collateral, including agricultural machinery and crops, if they did not pay the amount they defaulted on by August 30.
Federal agencies would not say whether the raid concerns the seizure or $18.1 million in Department of Defense contracts. Alfie Oakes has been paid for produce, dairy and eggs since 2008.
“I can confirm that DCIS, the law enforcement division of the (Department of Defense) Office of Inspector General, conducted law enforcement activities yesterday at 925 New Market Road in Immokalee. We have nothing more to add at this time,” said spokesperson Mollie Halpern.
The Secret Service said only: “We cannot comment because the U.S. Secret Service would not confirm the existence or status of an investigation.”
Alfie Oakes did not respond to phone calls or text messages seeking comment, but left the South Florida Produce warehouse that afternoon in his royal blue Range Rover and told a WINK News reporter, “Go Trump.” When asked what officers were doing there, he told her: “Everything is fine.” Later, at his home, he told another WINK News reporter, “Go Trump, fight, fight, fight.”
Alfie Oakes’ attorney, Steven Bracci of North Naples, did not return a call or email requesting comment, and the plaintiff’s attorneys on the loan also did not respond. Attorney Ryan Mittauer, of The Liles Firm in Jacksonville, said, “Farm Credit of Florida ACA’s pending litigation… is not related or connected to any known lawful enforcement activity or investigation.”
Local Republicans speculated that the raid against Oakes, a staunch supporter of former President-elect Donald Trump and former state Republican Party executive, was politically motivated. Oakes, owner of Seed to Table, Oakes Farms and Food & Thought and other companies, paid for two buses to take Trump supporters to the Capitol to protest the 2020 election results a day before the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection. later arrested.
‘We know he was robbed. They will try to destroy him like they did General (Michael) Flynn and Roger Stone,” Kathi Meo, secretary of the Collier County Republican Executive Committee, said in an email, referring to two men previously investigated by special in-house attorney Robert Mueller. , imprisoned and pardoned by Trump in 2020. “Just pray. They will use the coming months to do what they can before they are fired.”
Federal agents swarmed Oakes’ home on Santa Cruz Court in the Villages of Monterey and one of his businesses, South Florida Produce, Thursday morning. Florida Highway Patrol assisted in securing the crash scene. Officers walked in and out, wearing gloves and carrying paperwork and boxes. While at his home, they left with paperwork, boxes and a computer after Deanne Oakes let them in. They left his house in the afternoon, but remained in the warehouse.
Local business owner Danny Gonzalez, former president of the Immokalee Chamber of Commerce and the unofficial mayor of Immokalee, said officers were still present as he drove home from work at 8:30 p.m.
DCIS typically investigates cases of fraud, bribery and corruption involving the Department of Defense to ensure federal money is spent appropriately. It also stops cybercrime and hacking, investigates terrorism, prevents the illegal transfer of sensitive defense technologies to countries and criminals, investigates companies that use defective parts in weapons systems and military equipment.
Federal records show Oakes Farms Food & Distribution Services LLC received it $18.1 million in the Department of Defense contracts since 2008, 21,065 transactions related to produce, eggs and dairy products, with the largest payments occurring in 2021, followed by 2022 and decreasing this year. The contracting agencies were the DOD, the Department of Justice, and the Defense Logistics Agency, and the Bureau of Prisons was listed as subagencies.
There were two other small DOD contracts with Oakes Farm & Distribution Services LLC. All added up $36.3 million for fruits, vegetables and perishable foods, with $3.3 million already paid to Oakes, federal records show.
The foreclosure lawsuit, filed in Collier Circuit Court by Farm Credit of Florida, says Oakes Farms Inc. and the Oakeses borrowed $467,500 from the Florida Federal Land Bank Association on December 28, 2016, a loan that was modified in October 2018 and again in December 2018. when it was assigned to Farm Credit of Florida. Oakes Farms OP LLC, 925 New Market Road, was added as a borrower and the amount increased to $4.1 million.
Six properties, including crops, 114 pieces of equipment, machinery and fixtures, were used as collateral: 925 New Harvest Road, farms at 7455 and 7526 Sanctuary Road; cropland at 1260 Deer Run Lane in Naples and 6157 Pringle Lane in Immokalee; and a packaging plant at 837 E. Main St. in Immokalee. The collateral includes everything in all buildings, such as doors, windows, cupboards, carpeting, beds and curtains.
Equipment and crops on a farm Oakes rents, Half Circle L Ranch, which straddles Collier and Hendry counties, was also used as collateral, as were crops and a storage facility on the Gargiulo Produce property he uses. The lawsuit also names Synovus Bank as a defendant over another loan Oakes obtained for Oakes Farms on Davis Boulevard, which was inundated by a storm surge following Hurricane Ian on September 28, 2022.
The agricultural loan expired on January 1 and was not paid. In May, the couple delivered a forbearance agreement to Farm Credit of Florida. The one-month agreement suspended payments, allowing the couple to seek refinancing to pay off the loan. The lawsuit and summons served on the couple in October were the final step before the seizure.
Oakes served as chairman of the Republican state committee but was unable to run for office in this year’s August primary because he filed the wrong forms with the Supervisor of Elections Office shortly before the June 14 noon deadline. He is known for his heavy political activities and supporting a range of candidates.
According to data from the U.S. Small Business Administration, Oakes Farms Inc. received . $3.2 million in federal payment protection loans for payroll costs through Synovus Bank during the pandemic. Businesses and nonprofits that receive PPP loans can have loans forgiven if they meet certain criteria, including not laying off employees during the loan period. Applicants must prove that the loans are necessary to continue operations. The loan was forgiven and never had to be repaid.
He received two payments, one to Oakes Farms Market LLC to retain 146 retail jobs and another to Oakes Farms Inc. to help keep 355 farmworkers on the payroll. His loans were among 8,845 PPP loans in Collier that saved 7,216 jobs during the pandemic.
In 2020, he sued Collier County over its pandemic mask mandate, calling it unconstitutional and invalid. He allowed shoppers to enter his stores without masks. A federal judge dismissed his lawsuit in February 2023.
He also filed a federal lawsuit against the Lee County School Board, its superintendent and others after the board canceled his food delivery contract in June 2020 after he posted on Facebook that the pandemic was a hoax and his lack of sympathy for George’s death cited. Floyd, a Black man who was killed by a Minneapolis police officer in 2020 and called Floyd a criminal. Oakes claimed the termination violated his right to free speech and the Florida Sunshine Law, but a federal judge dismissed his lawsuit in October 2023, ruling that his Facebook comment was a “matter of public interest.”
He has two pending lawsuits filed last month. New York-based Seedway LLC, a seed supplier with two warehouses in Florida, has sued for more than $384,333 in unpaid products. According to the lawsuit, Alfie Oakes, Oakes Farms and employee Steven Veneziano were due payments on December 31, 2023. Another lawsuit was filed against Oakes Farms Food & Distribution Services LLC, 4206 Mercantile Ave., by an employee whose wife had a baby in August and he was allowed to go on family medical leave, but the baby experienced complications and he asked to return on Sept. 18 to work, but Oakes fired him on September 14, saying there was no more work for him there.
This isn’t the first time Oakes’ properties have been robbed. In July 2014, state agents raided Incredible Fruit Dynamics at 4206 Mercantile Ave. and arrested 105 employees for fraudulent documentation, use of personal identification, identity theft and workers’ compensation fraud. Oakes said he had no knowledge of their fraudulent paperwork, but the workers said he was aware of it.
The state had begun investigating workers’ compensation fraud a year earlier, when an Incredible Fruits Dynamics employee sought medical treatment for a work-related injury and told his attorney he had used a false identity and paperwork to get hired. Oakes said at the time that he bought the company and kept the old employees and never knowingly hired an undocumented employee, which the state Division of Insurance Fraud Law Enforcement Operations has confirmed.
WINK News contributed to this report.