Pasco rancher sued by meat packer over 200,000 ‘missing’ cattle, declares bankruptcy

One of the biggest farming and ranching families in Washington filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Monday, after Tyson Foods Inc. previously alleged in court records the family defrauded it of more than $225 million related to 200,000 cattle that never existed. The modern-day cattle rustling case is alleged in a civil suit in state court filed last month by Tyson Foods against Easterday Ranches Inc. The lawsuit was joined Monday by Spokane-based Washington Trust Bank. An attorney for the bank told a judge Monday the Easterday family has been transferring assets and selling collateral in violation of its loan agreement. At the hearing Monday in Pasco, Franklin County Superior Court Judge Samuel Swanberg approved Washington Trust’s request for a temporary restraining order against a separate entity, Easterday Farms Inc., to prevent it from selling crops or assets in violation of the loan agreement with the bank. The flurry of legal activity surrounds the Pasco-based Easterday family, which for decades has operated one of the largest agriculture operations in Washington, with more than 25,000 acres of farmland, a dairy operation and thousands of feeder cattle. In a complaint filed last week, Tyson Foods alleged Easterday Ranches Inc. had defrauded the company over a period of years of more than $225 million by claiming to have purchased, fed and provided about 200,000 cattle that never existed. It was seeking immediate legal intervention to protect another 54,000 head of Tyson-owned cattle in Easterday possession. For several years, Tyson Foods and the Easterday family, led by company president Cody Easterday, had provided a service by which Tyson would reimburse the Easterdays for the purchase and feeding costs of cattle housed in Easterday feedlots that were then provided to Tyson’s packing plant in Wallula. “President Cody Easterday admitted to the fraudulent scheme, and has explained that he concocted the scheme in order to offset over $200 million in losses he incurred in the commodities trading market,” Tyson attorney Alan D. Smith wrote in the complaint...MORE