VeraSun not pursuing farmers it asked for refund

Welcome ethanol plant
The VeraSun ethanol plant in the southern Minnesota town of Welcome.
MPR Photo/Mark Steil

Midwest corn farmers who received official letters from bankrupt ethanol producer VeraSun Energy Corp. asking for money back can breathe a little easier.

A Sioux Falls attorney who's representing some 70 farmers says he received a call Thursday morning from a New York law firm saying the trustee will not pursue individual farmers.

Attorney Patrick Glover says he talked to attorneys in Iowa and Nebraska and they received similar messages.

August letters sent to growers who sold corn to VeraSun in the 90 days before it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2008 told the farmers they had until Sept. 30 to repay 80 percent of what VeraSun paid them for their corn.

The demand was not well-received.

(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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