Failed Ghana venture leads to fraud claims against Duluth woman Peter Scott
and Milo Ippolito - Staff Monday, February 26, 2001.

NB:  She lives in Duluth, Georgia.

It seemed like the perfect pairing.  A Duluth woman had an enterprising idea
to open a rice plantation in Ghana, where 10 percent of the population is
classified as under-nourished.  The government of Ghana, by backing the
project, had the chance to provide a food staple for some of its 19.5
million people and to save $120 million annually on rice imports.  Six years
later, the government of Ghana has been forced to take over the project and
to cover the debt created by Quality Grain of Duluth or risk losing its
worldwide credit. Quality Grain has crumbled into lawsuits and only
one-fortieth of the planned 20,000-acre plantation is being cultivated.  The
company president, Juliet Renee Woodward Cotton of Duluth, has closed her
Gwinnett County office, leaving no forwarding address. She also recently
declared that pregnancy-related memory loss has left her temporarily unable
to defend against a lawsuit that alleges she is living a life of luxury on
at least part of the money that was supposed to develop the rice plantation.
  And the project that some had such hope for has become a symbol of
political corruption in the African nation.  Ghana President John Kufuor
emerged the winner in last year's election, in part, by accusing the sitting
administration and local officials of "wasting the nation's resources in
corrupt deals." One of the deals Kufuor cited was the government's venture
with Cotton and Quality Grain in Ghana's community of Aveyime, said Kofi
Coomson, editor of the Ghanaian Chronicle, a newspaper that has monitored
the project since its inception.  "We were expecting to develop 20,000 acres
overall, but we only have 515 acres now (being farmed), and $20 million of
our own money has gone up in smoke," said Coomson.  Oscar Hudson, Cotton's
uncle and a Quality Grain investor, believes Cotton --- who received
Ghana-backed loans to start the rice plantation --- spent some of the money
buying two Mercedes, a Jaguar and Armani clothes, according to a lawsuit
Hudson filed in Gwinnett Superior Court.  She also paid herself $830,000,
paid her husband $400,000 in salary and used $650,000 as a down payment on
her $1.7 million home in a gated community in Duluth, said Hudson's
attorney, Jerome Green of Little Rock.  "We are asking that the money spent
from the corporation without shareholder authorization be returned to the
corporation," Green said. "We believe the amount may be as much as $12
million."  Cotton, 37, has denied any wrongdoing and has filed a countersuit
against Hudson of Kalamazoo, Mich., for slander and interference with her
business.  Last month, she asked Gwinnett Superior Court to delay a trial on
Hudson's lawsuit at least until May. In a motion she filed herself, she said
her attorney had withdrawn from the case and she has been coping with memory
loss since giving birth to twin girls in June.  The illness "has rendered me
incompetent to discuss my defense with any completeness with another
attorney," Cotton wrote.  An attached doctor's note verified a "mild memory
loss" and cautioned against stressful situations that could raise Cotton's
blood pressure.  Cotton could not be reached by telephone and did not
respond to messages left at the security gate of the St. Ives Country Club
subdivision in north Fulton, where she lives.  An office on Crestwood
Parkway near Lilburn, that was once the headquarters for Quality Grain, has
a new tenant and no forwarding address.  Hudson said the claims he has
raised in his lawsuit have generated federal interest.  FBI officials would
not confirm that they are investigating Quality Grain. But, Hudson and two
others --- a former officer in the company and one of Cotton's financial
consultants --- have said they have been questioned by the FBI and Internal
Revenue about the company.  "There has been a lot of cheating and fraud by
this lady on both her partners and the Ghanaian government," said Dick
Anyadi of Ghana, Hudson's overseas attorney.  "They were supposed to start
production in 1997," Anyadi said. "This rice project was suppose to produce
sufficient rice to at least cover the quantity of rice Ghana imports every
year, as well as produce enough rice for purposes of exporting it to other
African countries."  SouthTrust Bank brokered $21 million in loans for the
Quality Grain rice project. The Export Import Bank of the United States
insured part of the loan, and Ghana guaranteed all of it, according to the
lawsuit.  Hudson said he put more than $162,000 into Quality Grain, starting
in 1991, because it was an appealing venture.  "She (Cotton) came to me
talking about it was a God project and he had put it in her heart," Hudson
said. "I would watch on TV those babies with the swollen bellies with their
eyes bugged out and wonder why they would not plant food for themselves.
There was land as far as the eye could see."  Hudson said he was prepared to
see what would develop from his investment until he made an unannounced
visit to Quality Grain in 1998 and was told by Cotton that he could not see
receipts for expenditures or examine the company's books.  Ferris Shelton of
Norcross, a former Quality Grain accountant who spent eight months in Ghana,
said: "All of the tractors, trucks and fertilizers, combines everything were
in place.  "As president it was up to her (Cotton) to say yeah or nay,"
Shelton said. "I was dismayed by the delays."  Cotton has been quoted in
Ghana's newspapers blaming the country's leaders for not educating the local
chiefs on the merits of the rice project.  Published reports in Ghana quote
landowners in Aveyime as saying they resisted because they were not being
fairly compensated for their land by the government or Quality Grain.  GHANA
The country was the first in colonial Africa to gain its independence, in
1957. After many years of political upheaval and military rule, a new
Constitution in 1992 guaranteed multiparty politics. > President: John
Kufuor > Pop: 19,533,560 (July 2000 est.) Ghana's population is made up of
about 100 different ethnic groups, the two largest are the Ashanti and the
Fante. > Area: Slightly smaller than Oregon (92,098 square miles) > GDP per
capita: $1,900 (*1999 est.) > Employment/economy: Agriculture, mining,
timber. > CIA's profile of Ghana:
www.odci.gov/cia/publicans/factbook/geos/gh.html > News from Ghana:
allafrica.com/ghana/ Map shows location of Ghana, in relation to Africa.
Sources: CIA World Factbook, World Book Encyclopedia. Research by RICHARD
HALLMAN / Staff / CHUCK BLEVINS / Staff


Forwarded by Essa
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