And the bills keep coming.
Easterday Ranches filed for bankruptcy protection Feb. 1, followed by Easterday Farms one week later.
The two Chapter 11 cases in U.S. Bankruptcy Court are being jointly administered âfor procedural purposes only,â with court staff maintaining one file.
Documents recently filed in the main case detail how much the three law firms hired by the Easterdays are seeking in compensation and reimbursement for Feb. 1 through May 31. They are the most recent fee applications on file.
The total for four months is $4.67 million.
That does not include the $1.4 million requested by attorneys who are tasked with making sure the unsecured creditors for both companies are represented.
They call it “Cattlegate.” It’s a modern-day cattle rustling scheme. Let’s start at the beginning.
In 1958, Ervin Easterday moved his family and farming operation from Nampo, Idaho to southeastern Wash., where he purchased 300 acres of undeveloped land in the new Columbia Basin Reclamation Irrigation project. With a meager annual rainfall of 7 inches per year, the new supply of water from Grand Coulee Dam changed this land forever.
As a young man, Ervin’s son, Gale, said he worked what seemed like endless hours on a Caterpillar leveling and clearing this new ground so water had access to run down furrows.
Washington rancher pleads guilty to stealing $244M in ‘ghost cattle’ scam By Kristin M. Kraemer, Tri-City Herald
Published: March 31, 2021, 7:15pm
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PASCO – The president of one of the largest agricultural operations in Washington state has admitted concocting a scheme to defraud Tyson Foods and another company out of more than $244 million.
Cody A. Easterday, 49, pleaded guilty Wednesday in U.S. District Court in a case that federal prosecutors are calling a “ghost-cattle scam.”
Easterday, who’s also chief executive officer of Easterday Ranches Inc., charged the two companies under various agreements for the costs of buying and feeding 200,000 cattle, when those cattle did not actually exist, according to a U.S. Department of Justice news release.
For Tri-State Livestock News
At the end of January, Tyson Fresh Meats filed a lawsuit against one of the largest farming and ranching families in Washington, Easterday Ranches, in an effort to recover losses from fictitious fed cattle sales and feed costs. Additionally, Tyson was hoping to recover 54,000 head of cattle still standing in an Easterday feedlot north of Pasco, Wash. The lawsuit was filed in Franklin County Superior Court in Pasco.
On Feb. 1, days after Tyson sued Easterday Ranches, the ranching operation filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy in federal court. Official Form 204 in Easterday Ranches’ bankruptcy filings lists 20 of their largest unsecured claims. The top unsecured claim comes from Tyson Fresh Meats with at least $225 million. The second largest unsecured claim comes from Segale Properties at $8,647,408.57. All 20 unsecured claims add up to $236,671,645.
Courtesy of Franklin County, Wash.
In southeast Washington, the welfare of more than 50,000 head of cattle is worrying Tyson Fresh Meats.
Can the herd continue to be fed and cared for while the company set up to guard over them, Easterday Ranches, files for federal bankruptcy?
“The immediate problem is the remaining 54,000 cattle, which have to be fed, managed, and grown to maturity for delivery to Plaintiff s processing plant [Tyson],” Tyson said in a superior court lawsuit filed last month, asking for a neutral third party to take over. “… financial distress (including insufficient operating cash and potential imminent dissipation of valuable assets), poses a significant and material risk to the health and value of the cattle. Moreover, there is real and significant risk to the public if proper care for the large herd is not maintained.”