Alberta grain broker Agfinity has filed for Bankruptcy and laid off employees. Agfinity, formerly headquartered in Stoney Plain, owes over $5 million to 181 creditors listed in bankruptcy papers published Nov. 26. Company assets totalled $162,593 according to insolvency trustee MNP, with under $68,000 in cash."Many of the creditors are farmers who sold grain through Agfinity but were never paid," the Western Producer reported. Employees missing their last paycheques are also listed in the filing.“We were told on Oct. 18 that they would be filing for bankruptcy that next Monday Oct. 21 and that as employees we could expect to hear from a trustee who was going to give us paperwork to fill out to ensure we were paid for our last few weeks of work,” said Coco Dougherty, Agfinity’s former vice president of marketing and communications to the Western Producer.Real Agriculture reported farmers were concerned in October about not getting paid for grain that was sold and picked up by the company.Agfinity president Joseph Billett acknowledged mistakes were made over the past year and offered apologies for the situation, reported the Western Producer.Billett is the only director named for Agfinity. The company was not licensed with the Canadian Grain Commission (CGC) and was not required to post a bond or security as part of the CGC’s producer payment security program, reported Real Agriculture. "Also they were not operating as they should have under that regulations lead out in the Canada Grain Act, namely requiring companies to be licensed and bonded," said an anonymous Western Standard source.
Alberta grain broker Agfinity has filed for Bankruptcy and laid off employees. Agfinity, formerly headquartered in Stoney Plain, owes over $5 million to 181 creditors listed in bankruptcy papers published Nov. 26. Company assets totalled $162,593 according to insolvency trustee MNP, with under $68,000 in cash."Many of the creditors are farmers who sold grain through Agfinity but were never paid," the Western Producer reported. Employees missing their last paycheques are also listed in the filing.“We were told on Oct. 18 that they would be filing for bankruptcy that next Monday Oct. 21 and that as employees we could expect to hear from a trustee who was going to give us paperwork to fill out to ensure we were paid for our last few weeks of work,” said Coco Dougherty, Agfinity’s former vice president of marketing and communications to the Western Producer.Real Agriculture reported farmers were concerned in October about not getting paid for grain that was sold and picked up by the company.Agfinity president Joseph Billett acknowledged mistakes were made over the past year and offered apologies for the situation, reported the Western Producer.Billett is the only director named for Agfinity. The company was not licensed with the Canadian Grain Commission (CGC) and was not required to post a bond or security as part of the CGC’s producer payment security program, reported Real Agriculture. "Also they were not operating as they should have under that regulations lead out in the Canada Grain Act, namely requiring companies to be licensed and bonded," said an anonymous Western Standard source.
