Court Date Delayed in Tyson Ghost Herd Case

In March, Cody Easterday pleaded guilty to a $244 million fraud in a ghost cattle scam. He confessed to Tyson officials that he used the stolen money to cover losses from trading commodity futures.

Remember Cody Easterday, the rancher from southeast Washington who pleaded guilty in March to defrauding Tyson Foods Inc. of $233 million and an unidentified company of $11 million? (See Ghost Herd Gives Tyson $233M Nightmare.)

Well, he was scheduled to be sentenced in federal court on Aug. 4, but that has been delayed.

The reason?

Both Easterday Ranches Inc. and Easterday Farms GP have started the bankruptcy reorganization process. “These proceedings are ongoing and are anticipated to generate hundreds of millions of dollars for restitution in this matter,” according to a filing by Easterday’s attorney, Carl Oreskovich of Spokane, Washington. “It will be beneficial for all parties to have identified the amount of money that has been paid out for restitution through the bankruptcy prior to the time of sentencing.”

In addition, Oreskovich is recovering from knee replacement surgery and wouldn’t be ready for the sentencing hearing.

No one objected to a delay, and the new sentencing date is Oct. 5.

If you recall it was in the late fall of 2020 when subsidiary Tyson Fresh Meats Inc. began taking a closer look at its cattle investments.

On Nov. 30, TFM, of Dakota Dunes, South Dakota, made a shocking discovery: Easterday, a cattle producer and feedlot operator it worked with for several years, had confessed to submitting invoices for about 200,000 cattle that didn’t exist, making it one of the largest fraud cases in recent memory.