Silicon Valley-Backed Firm Allegedly Uses Strong-Arm Tactics to Acquire California Farmland for Utopian City Project

Flannery Associates, supported by tech giants including Reid Hoffman and Marc Andreessen, allegedly uses lease terminations, evictions, costly litigation and 'divide-and-conquer' strategies to pressurize farmers into selling their lands for its $1 billion utopian city plan, as revealed in recent court filings amidst an ongoing federal lawsuit.

• Flannery Associates, a firm backed by Silicon Valley leaders such as Reid Hoffman and Marc Andreessen, has been accused of leveraging pressure tactics, including lease terminations, evictions, and initiating costly litigation, to acquire farmland in California.
• The firm plans to construct a utopian city worth $1 billion on the purchased land, employing methods such as playing one landowner against another in a 'divide-and-conquer' strategy in order to purchase properties.
• Flannery submitted a lawsuit in May against the Solano County landowners, accusing them of price-fixing and overcharging the company for the land.
• The company claims that the accused landowners have resulted in the firm paying around $170 million in overcharges compared to the fair market value, and is seeking $510 million in damages in return.
• This secretive land acquisition project has raised authorities' suspicions and faced criticism from local lawmakers, who have called for federal investigation into the matter.

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