Potential discrepancies found in Alfie Oakes government contract

2024-11-09 12:10:02

NBC2 News is discovering potential discrepancies in government contracts worth hundreds of millions, which were awarded to well-known Collier County businessman and Republican political influencer Alfie Oakes.The news comes more than 24 hours after Oakes’ home and packing center was raided by federal agents.NBC2 has learned first that a lawsuit claims Seed to Table Owner Alfie Oakes agreed to pay back a $4.5 million loan by August of this year or risk having his property seized by the creditor.Secondly, we’ve learned Oakes was awarded a government contract with the Department of Defense worth $238 million to provide fresh fruits and vegetables to government agencies.However, there are questions about how the contract was awarded.Oakes distribution plant, which was raided Thursday, may have been associated with an Oakes Farm company that represented itself as a “small business” in order to get a government contract.Federal bid documents show that Oakes Farms Food and Distribution was awarded a contract that was to be exclusively for small businesses defined by the Small Business Administration as having 700 employees or less.Meanwhile, Oakes boasts on his website that he has 3,500 employees company-wide, including his packaging plant. It’s not clear if the Oakes packaging plant is related to the company awarded the contract, or employs any of those 3,500 employees.Sunbiz documents show Oakes Farm Distributions transferred ownership to longtime employee Jawan Hames in 2021 Right around that time, the government announced it was looking for small businesses to award contracts to.However, independent journalist David Silverberg, writing for the progressive magazine Mother Jones interviewed Oakes who provided COVID-19 protocols as reason for shedding his business.“He told me at the time that he had sold off the divisions of his companies that dealt with federal procurement,” Silverberg said.He continued that Oakes, at the time, was very much against meeting any kind of COVID-19 mandates.“This would have made his business dealings with the federal government very problematic,” Silverberg said.If that company was not truly independent from Alfie Oake’s other companies with 3,500 employees, there may be questions about whether Oakes Farms food distributions was even eligible for the contract.The contracts involved the Department of Defense, the agency that investigates crimes for the department, which was among those searching Oakes home and the packaging plant.Silverberg, who investigated government contracts as a journalist, called the scene concerning.“This is unusually large scale,” he said. NBC2 did reach out to Oakes by phone, text and left a message for him. He has not returned our messages.This isn’t the first time Alfie Oakes has had a problem with government contracts.He had a contract with Lee County Schools, his company was supplying them with food. He was dropped because he didn’t meet COVID-19 protocols. He filed a lawsuit which was ultimately dismissed by the judge.