Feds raid Oakes Farms packing plant, Alfie Oakes’ North Naples home

Federal agents raided grocery magnate Francis Alfred “Alfie” Oakes III’s North Naples home and Immokalee produce packing plant, carrying out boxes all day and through the night Nov. 7.

The raid involving the U.S. Secret Service, Defense Criminal Investigative Services and IRS occurred a week after Oakes’ wife, Deanne, was served with foreclosure papers for the second time on a $4.1 million federal farm loan, according to a lawsuit filed Oct. 14 that seeks $2.78 million from the couple and Oakes Farms OP. They faced seizure of collateral, including farm equipment and crops, if they didn’t pay the amount they defaulted on by Aug. 30.

Federal agencies wouldn’t say if the raid involved the foreclosure or $18.1 million in U.S. Department of Defense contracts Alfie Oakes has been paid since 2008 that involve produce, dairy food and eggs.

“I can confirm that DCIS, the law enforcement arm of the [Department of Defense] Office of Inspector General, conducted law enforcement activity yesterday at 925 New Harvest Road in Immokalee. We have nothing further to add at this time,” spokesperson Mollie Halpern said.

The Secret Service said only: “We are unable to provide comment as the U.S. Secret Service will not confirm the existence or the status of an investigation.”

Alfie Oakes didn’t respond to calls or texts seeking comment, but left the South Florida Produce packing house in his royal blue Range Rover that afternoon, telling a WINK News reporter: “Go Trump.” When asked what agents were doing there, he told her: “Everything is all good.” Later, at his home, he told another WINK News reporter, “Go Trump, fight, fight, fight.”

Alfie Oakes’ lawyer, Steven Bracci of North Naples, didn’t return a call or email seeking comment. 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 the raid targeting Oakes, a staunch supporter of former President and current President-elect Donald Trump and former state GOP committeeman, was politically motivated. Oakes, who owns Seed to Table, Oakes Farms and Food & Thought and other businesses, paid for two buses to drive Trump supporters to the U.S. Capitol to protest the 2020 election results a day before the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection and several were later arrested.

“We know that he was raided. They will try to destroy him like they did with Gen. [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 House Counsel Robert Mueller, imprisoned and pardoned by Trump in 2020. “Just pray. They will use these next few months to do whatever they can before they are fired.”

Federal agents swarmed the 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 with securing the scene. Agents 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 home in the afternoon but remained at the packing house.

Local business owner Danny Gonzalez, former Immokalee Chamber of Commerce president and Immokalee’s unofficial mayor, said agents were still there when he drove home from work at 8:30 p.m.

DCIS typically investigates fraud, bribery and corruption cases involving the DOD to ensure federal money is properly spent. It also stops cybercrimes and hacking, investigates terrorism, prevents the illegal transfer of sensitive defense technologies to nations and criminals, investigates companies using defective parts in weapons systems and military equipment.

Federal records show Oakes Farms Food & Distribution Services LLC received $18.1 million in Department of Defense contracts since 2008, 21,065 transactions involving produce, eggs and dairy products, with the largest payments occurring in 2021, followed by 2022 and decreasing through this year. The awarding agencies were the DOD, Department of Justice and the Defense Logistics Agency and the Bureau of Prisons were listed as sub-agencies.

There were two other small DOD contracts to Oakes Farm & Distribution Services LLC. All add up to $36.3 million for fruits, vegetables and perishable foods, with $3.3 million already paid to Oakes, federal records show.

In October 2022, Oakes Farms Food and Distribution Services won a five-year $238.5 million DOD contract with Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support to deliver fruits and vegetables to USDA-supplied schools and Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and Coast Guard installations.

The foreclosure lawsuit, filed in Collier Circuit Court by Farm Credit of Florida, says Oakes Farms Inc. and the Oakeses borrowed $467,500 from Florida Federal Land Bank Association on Dec. 28, 2016, a loan modified in October 2018 and again in December 2018, when it was assigned to Farm Credit of Florida. Oakes Farms OP LLC, 925 New Harvest Road, was added as a borrower and the amount was 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; crop land at 1260 Deer Run Lane in Naples and 6157 Pringle Lane in Immokalee; and a packing plant at 837 E. Main St. in Immokalee. The collateral includes everything in all buildings, such as doors, windows, cabinets, carpeting, beds and drapes.

Equipment and crops on a farm Oakes leases, Half Circle L Ranch, which straddles Collier and Hendry counties, also was used as collateral, as were crops and a storage facility at Gargiulo Produce property that he uses. The lawsuit also lists Synovus Bank as a defendant due to another loan Oakes obtained for Oakes Farms on Davis Boulevard, which was flooded by storm surge after Hurricane Ian on Sept. 28, 2022.

The farm loan matured on Jan. 1 and wasn’t paid. In May, the couple delivered a forbearance agreement to Farm Credit of Florida. The one-month agreement paused payments, allowing the couple to seek refinancing to pay off the loan. The lawsuit and summonses served on the couple in October were the last step before seizure.

Oakes was the state Republican committeeman but couldn’t run in this year’s August primary because he filed the wrong forms with the Supervisor of Elections Office shortly before the noon June 14 deadline. He’s known for his heavy political activity and for endorsing a slate of candidates.

During the pandemic, Oakes Farms Inc. received $3.2 million in federal Payment Protection Loans through Synovus Bank for payroll expenses, according to U.S. Small Business Administration records. Companies and nonprofit organizations that receive PPP loans may have loans forgiven if they meet certain criteria, including not laying off employees during the loan period. Applicants must attest that that the loans are necessary to continue operations. The loan was forgiven and never had to be repaid.

He received two payments, one for Oakes Farms Market LLC to retain 146 retail jobs and another to help Oakes Farms Inc. keep 355 farm workers on 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 his stores to come in without masks. A federal judge dismissed his lawsuit in February 2023.

He also filed a federal lawsuit against the Lee County School Board, the superintendent and others after the board terminated his food supply contract in June 2020 after he posted on Facebook that the pandemic was a hoax and cited his lack of sympathy for the death of George Floyd, a Black man killed by a Minneapolis police officer in 2020, calling Floyd a criminal. Oakes contended the termination violated his right to free speech and Florida Sunshine Law, but a federal judge dismissed his lawsuit in October 2023, ruling his Facebook comment involved a “matter of public concern.”

He still has two pending lawsuits filed last month. New York-based Seedway LLC, a seed provider with two Florida warehouses, sued over $384,333 in unpaid products. The lawsuit says Alfie Oakes, Oakes Farms and employee Steven Veneziano owed payments by Dec. 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 out on Family Medical Leave, but the baby experienced complications and he asked to return to work on Sept. 18, but Oakes terminated him Sept. 14, saying there was no more work for him.

It’s not the first time Oakes’ properties were raided. In July 2014, state agents raided Incredible Fruit Dynamics at 4206 Mercantile Ave. and arrested 105 workers for fraudulent documentation, use of personal identification, identity theft and workers’ compensation fraud. Oakes said he had no knowledge of their fraudulent paperwork, but workers said he was aware.

The state had begun investigating workers’ compensation fraud a year earlier, when an Incredible Fruits Dynamics employee sought medical treatment for a job-related injury and told his attorney he’d used a false identity and paperwork to get hired. Oakes said at the time he purchased the company and kept its longtime employees and never knowingly hired an undocumented worker, which the state Division of Insurance Fraud Law Enforcement Operations confirmed.

WINK News contributed to this report.