US Tobacco Cooperative to Pay Up to $75 Million to Member Farmers

US Tobacco Cooperative Inc. won court approval of its bankruptcy plan that centers on a settlement to pay up to $75 million to a group of farmers who alleged improper withholdings of membership funds.

Under the settlement, USTC, which distributes tobacco grown by its farmer members, will initially pay about $30 million into a fund for the benefit of the class of hundreds of thousands of members, according to the Chapter 11 plan approved at a hearing Wednesday by Judge Joseph N. Callaway of the US Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina.

After the initial deposit, the ...