Oakes’ ex-CEO alleges broader fraud schemes

Francis “Alfie” Oakes III’s former acting CEO has denied embezzling at least $12.5 million to fund a gambling habit and lavish lifestyle, alleging many payments and deposits were made at Oakes’ direction and that some covered the multimillion-dollar construction of Farmer Joe’s Market in Cape Coral. 

In repeated denials of theft and embezzlement, Steven A. Veneziano Jr.’s answer to Oakes’ amended federal lawsuit alleges he didn’t steal from Oakes, but stole for Oakes. 

“Alfie Oakes, the owner of Oakes Farms, directed and/or facilitated the creation of numerous straw entities to employ sophisticated schemes to defraud the United States government, insurance companies, business partners and civil litigants adverse to plaintiffs,” Veneziano said in his answer, filed May 15 in U.S. District Court by Miami attorney Susan Warner. 

Veneziano alleges that, at Oakes’ direction, he altered Oakes’ internal records to steal and defraud the federal government, insurance companies and others to benefit Oakes and his coconspirators. 

To carry out the alleged schemes, Veneziano says Oakes appointed a straw owner of Oakes Food and Distribution Services to conceal his ownership and secure a Department of Defense contract, and another for Farmer Joe’s Market in Cape Coral to avoid a noncompete agreement with Publix. He also alleges Oakes named his brother Eric and a business partner’s wife as straw owners of Food & Thought and the adjacent Thoughtful Threads to file fraudulent applications for government relief funds through the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program. 

Veneziano also noted the Department of Agriculture organic certification for Oakes’ farm on Sanctuary Road was suspended in March 2019, but in Oakes’ software system, “entries were altered to make it appear that the seeds being planted were organic.” 

Oakes said he would like to provide all the information he has but cannot. “Because of the ongoing federal investigation, our attorneys are instructing me to be silent,” Oakes said. “I am looking forward to the truth coming out as this investigation unfolds.” 

Some accusations go beyond criminal case 

The allegations are the latest detailed by Veneziano, a former Oakes employee hired in 2013 who rose through the ranks to become Oakes’ de facto president and CEO. Veneziano pleaded guilty in August to conspiracy to commit CFAP money laundering and wire fraud, agreeing to cooperate with the government against coconspirators. He moved to California, saying he feared for his life. 

Two months later, Oakes Farms Inc., Oakes Farm OP (Operating Partners) LLC and South Florida Produce LLC — entities owned by Oakes — filed a lawsuit against Veneziano and his two dissolved companies, Veneziano Farms LLC and Veneziano Property Management LLC. Under threat of dismissal, Oakes amended the lawsuit last month. 

“The complaint alleges, in painstaking detail, Mr. Veneziano’s elaborate scheme to defraud Oakes Farms and South Florida Produce. We stand on those allegations and intend to prove them,” Fort Lauderdale attorney Jordan Shaw, one of five attorneys representing Oakes, said May 18. 

Oakes has not been charged, but plea agreements show coconspirators and evidence point to him as the orchestrator of various frauds, as Veneziano alleges. The federal investigation became public after federal agents raided Oakes’ North Naples home and Immokalee packing plant in November 2024. 

So far, nine criminal defendants, including Oakes employees and an accountant, have pleaded guilty, agreeing to testify against coconspirators and reimburse the government millions of dollars illegally gained from federal farm, insurance, pandemic and other programs. Two harvesters have been sentenced. 

At Oakes’ direction 

According to the filing, Veneziano alleges he covered significant personal expenses through cash payments during his time at Oakes Farms and was later reimbursed, arguing that many of the transactions labeled as theft were actually directed by Oakes. These included payments to stage protests against political opponents, costs tied to unpermitted construction work in Immokalee and cash transfers intended to conceal Oakes’ ownership in Farmer Joe’s Market. 

Although Oakes’ lawsuit accuses Veneziano of wiring $995,000 from Oakes Farms’ bank account into Veneziano’s personal account for no “discernible or legitimate business purpose,” Veneziano alleges Oakes directed his secretary to wire the funds, along with additional money from Robert Eddy — Oakes’ business partner with Fruit Dynamics LLC and Lightning Strikes Bowling Lanes — to help build Farmer Joe’s. 

State records show the market is owned solely by Oakes’ longtime friend, Glen Lee Snyder. He has said he has silent partners but did not respond to a request for comment. 

On Nov. 22, 2022, the day of the deposit to Veneziano’s account, the answer states Eddy deposited $500,000 into Veneziano’s personal account. Veneziano then withdrew $1 million and transferred it to GNS Holdings LLC’s account. A day later, due to daily transfer limits, he transferred $495,000 more to GNS Holdings and also wired two payments, $444,337.05 and $1 million, to Compass Construction Inc. for Farmer Joe’s construction. 

State records show Snyder as the sole member of GNS, but Veneziano says he and others were owners. He alleges he owned 45%, Oakes owned 51%, and Snyder was given the remaining 4% for his role as the straw owner. 

The filing says bank records show that from March 26, 2021, through Jan. 19, 2022, Veneziano deposited $6,339,917.80 into GNS’s account, while Oakes’ wife, Deanne, deposited $6,501,000 and Alfie Oakes deposited $2 million, all toward building Farmer Joe’s. Veneziano also includes numerous text messages with Oakes and others to support his allegations. 

“Despite Veneziano’s significant labor investment and cash contributions to the construction of Farmer Joe’s, named after Veneziano’s grandfather, Alfie Oakes altered documents to steal Veneziano’s ownership interest in the company and transfer it to a private trust,” the answer states. 

Veneziano also denies stealing for his own business, alleging that Oakes Farms’ secretary had access to the Veneziano Farms bank accounts and authority to initiate wire transfers, while Oakes maintained ultimate control by approving deposits and withdrawals.  

He admits to serving as a straw owner, alleging Oakes directed an attorney to transfer ownership of South Florida Produce from Oakes and Deanne Oakes to him and his wife, Amy, on Jan. 23, 2023. 

Although he is accused of stealing money and using credit cards to fund a personal lifestyle, he alleges that multiple Oakes Farms employees charged millions of dollars to his personal credit cards from 2022 through 2024 for business and other purposes, saying the straw companies were unable to secure credit backing from Oakes Farms. 

A month after the November 2024 raids on Oakes’ home and South Florida Produce, Veneziano says Oakes Farms’ attorney removed the couple as the sole managing members without their knowledge or consent. 

Oakes also accused Veneziano of adding his wife and others to the payroll to pocket funds, but Veneziano alleges Oakes added numerous nonemployees to the payroll to inflate payroll totals for Paycheck Protection Program applications, a federal loan program that covered payroll costs during the pandemic. 

Veneziano alleges Oakes directed him and others, including the company’s chief financial officer, to add friends and family to Oakes Farms entities’ payrolls as part of fraudulent schemes targeting the federal government. He claims individuals such as kiteboarding instructors, cousins, employees’ family members, spouses, business partners and friends were included to inflate employee counts in applications. He also says his children’s caretaker was added to the payroll so she could help care for his special-needs children while he worked more than 100 hours per week for Oakes Farms. 

Veneziano said it was also common practice for Oakes’ employees to add their wives and children to entities to perpetrate other frauds, including millions of dollars in crop insurance fraud. 

Federal records say Oakes’ companies received $3.2 million in PPP loans, and loans to Oakes Farms Inc. and Oakes Farms Market LLC were fully forgiven. 

The federal government has extended the statute of limitations to prosecute PPP fraud to 10 years, a decade from a loan, forgiveness or last fraudulent act — whichever is later.