USDA investigating cattle brokerage for bad checks

One of the nation's largest cattle brokerages is under investigation after federal regulators said the Indiana company left ranchers nationwide hanging for as much as $130 million, U.S. Department of Agriculture officials said Thursday. Eastern Livestock Co. wrote checks totaling about $81 million to buy cattle this month that have been returned for insufficient funds, according to the USDA. But the company may owe more than 700 ranchers across the Midwest, South and West a total of $130 million, agency spokesman Jim Brownlee said. Investigators from USDA's Grain, Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration worked for several days at the company's headquarters in New Albany, about 115 miles south of Indianapolis, Brownlee said. The U.S. Department of Justice also is involved. It wasn't immediately clear how ranchers already hurting from rising costs and bad weather might get their money back. The company's accounts were frozen last week by a judge in Ohio, according to published reports, and USDA records show the company is bonded for only $875,000...more