It took a while to notice, but Tyson Foods eventually realized late last year that more than 200,000 of its cattle seemed to have gone missing on a Washington state ranch.
It turns out that they never existed. That s the bizarre upshot from the collapse and bankruptcy of Easterday Ranches, which was under contract to house, raise and feed bovines for Tyson. All told, the episode cost the biggest US meat company and another producer more than $200m (€168m), and the rancher who gambled it away on cattle and corn futures may be headed for prison.
Easterday Ranches in Pasco, Washington – a real place with real animals formerly run by one Cody Easterday – raised the kind of cattle that ideally weigh more than 1,000 pounds each, according to court papers. Tyson Fresh Meats paid the ranch millions of dollars for purchasing cattle on its behalf and fattening them for slaughter, an arrangement that dates from at least 2010.
Attorney: Easterday was lured by the market
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Rancher Cody Easterday Faces Up to 20 Years in Prison, $244M in Restitution on Wire Fraud
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