Washington

DOJ Recommends 10-Year Sentence for Easterday

Thu, 22 Sep 2022 15:40:17 GMT

Federal prosecutors have recommended Washington state cattleman Cody Easterday spend at least 10 years and one month in prison for a fraud scheme that cost Tyson Fresh Meats and another victim at least $244 million.

Justice Department attorneys filed a memo in the U.S. District Court for Eastern Washington that called the theft “staggering” and under standard sentencing guidelines recommended Easterday serve between 121 and 151 months, or up to 12 years and seven months.

Easterday’s scheme began to unravel in late 2020 when Tyson announced it was correcting financial results with the Securities and Exchange Commission for its beef segment for fiscal years 2017 through 2020. Tyson discovered “misappropriation of company funds” by one of its suppliers. Court documents later revealed that supplier to be Easterday who was charging Tyson for the costs of buying and feeding as many as 200,000 cattle that did not exist.

Easterday pleaded guilty in the “ghost cattle” scheme in 2021, and his sentencing has been delayed three times to allow Easterday’s legal team to sort out what the judge described as “a mess” in terms of personal financial issues, Easterday’s creditors and Tyson.

Tyson’s losses totaled $233 million and Segale Properties of Tukwila, WA, lost $11 million. Easterday has promised to make restitution as part of the plea agreement.

Easterday accepted responsibility for his crime and sought to raise money for the victims by selling his family’s extensive cattle and farm holdings through bankruptcy court, according to the Justice Department.

Sentencing is now scheduled for Oct. 4 in Yakima, WA, by U.S. District Court Judge Stanley Bastian.

By accepting responsibility, Easterday’s sentencing range was reduced by approximately four to six years, according to the Justice Department.

Seattle Selected for Port Pop-Up to Ease Ag Supply Chain

Fri, 18 Mar 2022 22:07:18 GMT

USDA announced on Friday another ag commodity “pop-up” port will be opening to temporarily house ag containers for shipping.

The Northwest Seaport Alliance is partnering the USDA to bring the Port of Seattle a 49-acre pop-up site that will accept both dry and refrigerated agricultural products for temporary storage.

AgDay reports the Northwest Seaport Alliance saw a nearly 30-percent decline in the export of ag commodities in the last six months of last year, with the ratio of loaded versus empty container exports shifting to predominately empty containers since May of 2021.

A similar pop-up site launched at California’s Port of Oakland earlier this month, along with U.S. Department of Transportation partnership with the Port of Savannah in Georgia.

More on the Way

USDA says they will continue to seek opportunities to partner with additional ports or other intermodal container facilities to help American farmers and agricultural producers move their product to market.

“The pandemic revealed vulnerabilities across our supply system and as the economy has made an historic recovery, it has put additional strain on the supply chain,” Vilsack says. “The Biden-Harris Administration is calling out ocean carriers that are taking advantage of the situation to leverage undue profits and are treating U.S. agricultural companies and producers unacceptably.”

The National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) and the U.S. Dairy Export Council (USDEC) praised the launch in a news release today, saying the site will help to “deliver relief” to agricultural exporters grappling with supply chain struggles. However, they feel this site is only one leg of the supply chain race.

“We urge the administration to build on today’s great news by expanding further to inland locations.” says Jim Mulhern, NMPF president. “We urge Congress to move forward swiftly with legislative solutions to the supply chain crunch by passing the Ocean Shipping Reform Act and advancing immigration reform to address the growing labor challenges facing our dairy farms and plants.

Bridge the Gap

Adjustments to truck-carrying capacity has been heavily debated as a solution to clogged ports.

White House Ports Czar John Porcari says he has an ongoing discussion with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration about increasing truck carrying capacity, as truck size and weight specifications are established at the state level, with federal oversight.

“This is not just a short-term issue related to the difficulties in exporting right now,” says Porcari. “This is a perennial issue that has be tackled in our infrastructure to accommodate those larger weights.”

Vilsack echoed Porcari saying ports and truck capacity are an “interesting” issue when considering the bipartisan infrastructure bill. He says as bridges and roads are repaired across the U.S., they can be strengthened to handle more weight and offer “greater resilience and efficiency in the long term.”

Read more from AgWeb:
> Will The USDA Pop-Up Site Solve the Clogged Ports Issue?
> John Phipps: It’s Not a Chain, It’s a Web

AB Livestock Buys Feedlot Entangled In Tyson Lawsuit

Fri, 05 Mar 2021 21:42:51 GMT

While Tyson Fresh Meats lawyers were filing a lawsuit on Monday (Jan. 25) against one of the packer’s largest cattle suppliers in Washington state, the ink was still drying on the sale of one of that supplier’s feedlots to one of Tyson’s competitors.

Easterday Ranches, Inc., has sold its “North Lot” in Franklin County, WA, to AB Livestock of Boise, Idaho, according to a report by Northwest News Network , a collaboration of public radio stations that broadcast in Washington, Oregon and Idaho. The sale was completed Jan. 22, 2021.

The 25,000-head feedlot sits on 1,500 acres with adjacent irrigated and dry farmland spanning multiple sections. It sold for $16 million dollars , according to the Franklin County Assessor’s Office.

AB Livestock is a division of Agri Beef Co, based in Boise. Agri Beef co-owns Washington Beef, a beef packer based in Toppenish, WA, with a daily slaughter capacity of 1,550 head. Last July, Agri Beef announced it would open a packing plant in Jerome, ID , that will process 500 head per day and operate as True West Beef.

The sale of the Easterday feedlot raises some issues the court will need to sort out, since Tyson has said it still has 54,000 cattle on feed with Easterday Ranches. It is unknown how many of Tyson’s cattle are in the North Lot, and how many could still be under Easterday’s watch in its other facility, a 35,000-head feedlot located near Kennewick.

In its court filing, Tyson asked for a court-appointed receiver to take control of Easterday Ranches. Court documents include a request for the current Easterday Ranches staff to turn over everything from keys to financial documents.

“We were not aware the sale was completed when we filed our requests with the court, however, the news does not change our position on the need for a court-appointed receiver to take control of the remaining assets of Easterday Ranches,” Tyson spokesman Gary Mickelson said in an email.

Agri Beef is known for producing brands including Snake River Farms, Double R Ranch and St. Helens. The company says the acquisition plays a strategic role in its commitment and vision for growth.

“This acquisition provides AB Livestock the opportunity to increase its business with local Northwest suppliers, while reducing reliance on cattle supplies from Canada,” said Matt Buyers, President of AB Livestock in a press release. “It also dramatically reduces our overall carbon foot-print as it brings an additional source of fed-cattle supply much nearer to our Washington processing facility.”

Tyson filed its lawsuit in an attempt to recover assets “in the aftermath of a fraudulent scheme by Easterday Ranches” in which Tyson said it lost millions.

In a statement earlier this week, Tyson said, “Easterday falsified documents to obtain reimbursement by Tyson of more than $200 million in connection with some 200,000 cattle that did not exist. The president of Easterday Ranches admitted to the scheme and acknowledged the fraud was initiated to cover extensive commodities trading losses he had experienced.”

The lawsuit states Easterday “submitted false invoices to Plaintiff (Tyson) for reimbursement, identifying cattle that did not exist; has requested and received reimbursement from Plaintiff for feed that was not in fact purchased; has submitted fictitious inventory records to Plaintiff; and has otherwise schemed to defraud Plaintiff in a way that has caused Plaintiff losses in excess of $225 million.”

Related stories:

Tyson Sues Cattle Feeder Over ‘Fraudulent Scheme’

Agri Beef Plans New Idaho Packing Plant