News milk
Dairy farmers go to court over MTC
A group of 30 dairy farmers who say they have been duped by the Milk Trading Company (MTC) cooperative has engaged lawyers and are preparing to go to court. The complaint against MTC is deception with dairy futures contracts and violation of financial legislation in Belgium and the Netherlands.
The group has now come out with an official announcement and an appeal to other victims to join. Also the Belgian business newspaper From Tijd paid attention to the affair. The complaint is not only against MTC, but also against DLV/United Experts, which works with the cooperative and facilitates the activities. The group of farmers does not represent all leavers from MTC. At its peak, the cooperative had 330 members. More than 100 of them have now left.
Previously reported Boerenbusiness all that on a turbulent meeting in June painful results over the past year had been announced. It was already known then that about €30 million in investment at MTC had evaporated.
Troubled meeting in June
According to the farmers who now want to go to court, 45% of the members refused to agree to the annual accounts in July, but director Dirk Coucke managed to bend the meeting to his will. MTC continued its course of entering into new forward contracts and incurring losses in practice. The image below of the MTC dashboard clearly shows how the trading was always below the actual market price (see right column). Participating dairy farmers had to keep making additional contributions.
The group of dairy farmers who now want to go to court hopes that even more victims will join them. The call contains an email address (dupedemtc@gmail.com)where they can register. Many people who have lost money at MTC feel ashamed. Many farmers are also afraid of MTC driver Coucke, also because he is said to have all kinds of 'tyres' that keep him out of the wind.
Coucke denies
Coucke has always denied that he is doing anything wrong. According to him, the dropouts have weakened their knees and the losses suffered now will be made up for later. The dairy farmers who have left oppose this and argue that Coucke himself does not run any risk with his actions. He does not invest, but receives his earnings by continuing to trade. Coucke fights that in turn. The group of victims is represented by two law firms, including CliffordChance.
Klaas van der Horst
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