Tuesday, March 22, 2022, 8:25 pm News Flash Archive

In what's looking more and more like a blood feud, UMB Bank has suggested to the court that attorney Don Barrett has violated a confidentiality order by the bankruptcy court judge in the Express Grain case.

UMB Bank's motion filed late today may be seen here: MOTION TO ENFORCE PROTECTIVE ORDER

UMB Bank is owed $70 million in money it loaned to EG, which is now bankrupt.

Don Barrett, an attorney from Lexington who is representing the farmers who delivered grain to EG but have never been paid, has filed a class action lawsuit against UMB Bank. The lawsuit alleges a conspiracy between the bank and Express Grain to sucker the farmers into delivering their grain to EG, for which they were not paid, and then effectively "seizing" the grain by EG filing for bankruptcy, all in order to satisfy the $70 million in outstanding loans that UMB Bank had provided to EG.

No evidence backing these claims against UMB Bank has been revealed publicly, and UMB Bank has requested that the lawsuit be dismissed. See our reporting on the lawsuit against UMB Bank here: Farmers double down in class action suit against UMB Bank in Express Grain failure

Huge amounts of confidential information have been filed in a private data area by all the parties in the EG bankruptcy case, and the judge has issued a protective order barring any of the attorneys from disclosing the confidential information without court permission.

But today, UMB Bank filed its motion asking the bankruptcy court to enforce the confidentiality order, and to require Mr. Barrett to answer for what UMB Bank claims is a possible breach of that order by Mr. Barrett.

UMB Bank is particularly piqued by Don Barrett's appearance on the Gallo Radio Show on the morning of March 17, where, according to UMB Bank, Mr. Barrett may have disclosed confidential information that he allegedly gleaned from his access to the confidential documents filed in the bankruptcy case.

UMB Bank states that it "believes that Attorney Don Barrett violated this Court's express orders on March 17, 2022."

UMB Bank further claims:

UMB believes that Mr. Barrett violated the Protective Order when, during the morning of March 17, 2022 (shortly before the parties were set to begin mediation, Dkt. 2543), he participated in an interview on a radio show. That interview contained numerous false accusations about UMB, so UMB will share the link to the interview with the Court under seal. During that interview, Mr. Barrett referenced "documents that we have seen that are filtering out," which UMB believes related to documents produced in the Interest Data Room pursuant to the Section 557 Discovery Procedures and subject to the Protective Order.

He also purported to paraphrase some of those documents and proclaimed that UMB made certain statements in those documents. Then, Mr. Barrett launched into numerous unfounded and false accusations about the bank's intentions.

UMB will address the substance of those false accusations in due course, at the appropriate time contemplated by the Section 557 Discovery Procedures.

The Gallo Show interview of Mr. Barrett may be seen here: Gallo Show interview with attorney Don Barrett

UMB Bank then requests the following from the court:

UMB requests the Court enforce the Protective Order, order Attorney Don Barrett to abide by the Protective Order, order Mr. Barrett to show cause as to whether he believes his conduct did not violate the Protective Order and why he believes the violation should not warrant sanctions under Fed. R. Civ. P. 37(b), remind all other parties who received documents via the Interest Data Room and the Section 557 Discovery Procedures of the requirements of the Protective Order, and grant such other and further relief as is justified under the circumstances.

As they say, the fat is in the fire.

 

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To read all our coverage of the Express Grain bankruptcy case, see here: Index of Express Grain articles

 

John Pittman Hey
The Taxpayers Channel

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