Cody Allen Easterday, 51, has been sentenced to 11 years in prison after pleading guilty in March to orchestrating a “ghost cattle” scam that defrauded Tyson Foods and another company out of nearly $244 million. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has called this the largest fraud scheme in the eastern district of Washington.
At Easterday’s sentencing, Chief Judge Bastian called it “the biggest theft or fraud I’ve seen in my career – and the biggest I ever hope to see.” Judge Bastian further condemned Easterday for destroying the empire he had worked to build for years.
Easterday’s scam, which took place between 2016 and 2020, involved falsely claiming to have purchased, raised, and fed 265,000 cattle for future sale. In reality, the cattle never existed. The two companies, which had advanced payments to Easterday Ranches to fund the operation, were misled into believing the cattle were being raised and would be sold for profit. Instead, Easterday pocketed the funds, ultimately swindling over $244 million.
“The scale and brazenness of Mr. Easterday’s fraud is immense,” stated Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian M. Donovan. The stolen money was used to cover about $200 million in losses Easterday Ranches had incurred through poor commodity futures trading.
In addition to defrauding the livestock companies, Easterday also submitted false paperwork to CME Group Inc., the world’s largest financial derivatives exchange, regarding the non-existent cattle. After using the illicit funds to cover his losses, Easterday kept the remainder for himself, expanding his business into a farming empire that included over 22,000 acres of farmland, 150 employees, and revenues exceeding $250 million by 2020.
With his stolen wealth, Easterday purchased a private plane and hangar. However, the illicit empire he built ultimately crumbled when his fraud was exposed. He was forced to declare bankruptcy, liquidating his assets in one of Washington’s largest bankruptcy cases.
The companies that were defrauded were able to recover only $65 million of the nearly $244 million lost in the scheme. U.S. Attorney Vanessa R. Waldref remarked, “No one is above the law. Mr. Easterday amassed significant personal wealth, yet he wanted more, so he defrauded his victims of nearly a quarter billion dollars by charging for cattle that never existed.”
The full amount of $244 million was ordered to be repaid by Easterday, marking the financial toll his fraudulent actions had on the industry. This case serves as a stark reminder of the destructive power of greed and the consequences of committing financial crimes on such a massive scale.