A federal judge in Florida issued a $31 million judgment in favor of green coffee trader Neumann Gruppe USA Inc. after hundreds of containers of green coffee from Nicaragua were never delivered.
The judgment — first issued in May then amended in June by U.S. District Court Judge Jacqueline Becerra — followed a lengthy bench trial in January, after which the judge described the testimony of the defendant as largely not credible.
The suit first came in December 2022 on behalf of Rofthos Corporation, which was subsequently acquired by Neumann Gruppe USA Inc., part of Germany-based green coffee specialist Neumann Kaffe Gruppe (NKG).
Rofthos said that between September 2021 and March 2022, it made $21.7 million in advance payments to Miami-based CLR Roasters for green coffees from Nicaragua, following established Green Coffee Association contract protocols.
The complaint alleges that CLR — formerly a subsidiary of Youngevity International that has not been operational since 2023 — defaulted on the vast majority of the contracted coffees, which stemmed from 49 purchase orders totalling 147,950 bags of coffee.
The defendant in the suit is H&H Coffee Investments LLC, one of several coffee-focused entities solely owned by Florida-based Alain Piedra Hernandez that guaranteed CLR’s contract obligations.
According to court documents, Piedra Hernandez was a “stockholder and/or operator” of Nicaraguan green coffee companies Hernandez Export and Beneficio Solecafe, which were primary suppliers of Nicaraguan green coffee to CLR.
Additional court documents show that CLR and H&H were engaged in a state lawsuit regarding green coffee trading that was settled last year.
At the Rothfos/Neumann trial, H&H argued that the “guaranty” — including for a “rollover” agreement for CLR to deliver fresh-crop coffee to Rothfos — was unenforceable and that the amount guaranteed would be capped at $1 million, according to court records.
Following the bench trial, the judge sided against H&H, ordering just over $31.4 million in damages, which included approximately $19 million in principal damages from defaulted contracts, plus approximately $12.3 million in interest.
The case — Rothfos Corp. v. H&H Coffee Investments LLC, number 1:22-cv-24000 — is in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.
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