NORTHWEST
East Oregonian
A2
Thursday, April 1, 2021
Easterday pleads guilty to $244 million ghost-cattle scam
East Oregonian
MESA, Wash. — A Wash-
ington man pleaded guilty
on Wednesday, March 31, to
defrauding businesses out of
more than $244 million by
charging them under various
agreements for the purported
costs of purchasing and feed-
ing hundreds of thousands
of cattle that did not actually
exist, according to a press
release from the U.S. Attor-
ney’s Office.
According to court docu-
ments, Cody Easterday, 49, of
Mesa, Washington, used his
company, Easterday Ranches,
to enter into a series of agree-
ments with Tyson Foods and
an unnamed second business
to purchase and feed cattle on
behalf of Tyson.
“For years, Cody East-
erday perpetrated a fraud
scheme on a massive scale,
increasing the cost of produc-
ing food for American fami-
lies,” said Acting Assistant
Attorney General Nicholas
L. McQuaid of the Justice
Department’s Criminal Divi-
sion. “The criminal division’s
prosecutors are committed
to swiftly and thoroughly
prosecuting frauds affecting
our nation’s agricultural and
other commodities markets,
whether in the heartland or on
Wall Street.”
Per the agreements, Tyson
and the unnamed business
would advance Easterday
George Plaven/Capital Press, File
Easterday Farms President Cody Easterday pleaded guilty on Wednesday, March 31, to de-
frauding businesses out of more than $244 million by charging them under various agree-
ments for the purported costs of purchasing and feeding hundreds of thousands of cattle
that did not actually exist.
Ranches the costs of buying
and raising the cattle. Once the
cattle were slaughtered and
sold at market price, Easterday
Ranches would repay the costs
advanced — plus interest and
certain other costs — retain-
ing as profit the amount by
which the sale price exceeded
the repayment to both Tyson
and the unnamed business.
Easterday submitted and
caused others to submit fraud-
ulent invoices and other infor-
mation to both Tyson and the
unnamed business starting in
2016 and continuing through
November 2020.
The false invoices sought
and obtained reimburse-
ment from the victims for the
purported costs of purchas-
ing and growing hundreds
of thousands of cattle that
neither Easterday nor Easter-
day Ranches ever purchased
and that did not actually exist,
the press release said.
The press release said East-
erday constructed the fraud in
order to offset more than $200
million in losses incurred in
the commodities trading
markets.
Forecast for Pendleton Area
| Go to AccuWeather.com
TODAY
FRIDAY
SATURDAY
SUNDAY
MONDAY
Mostly sunny
Partly sunny
Cloudy
Intervals of clouds
and sunshine
Chance for a
couple of showers
73° 43°
65° 44°
76° 42°
69° 44°
PENDLETON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
65° 46°
62° 40°
64° 40°
HERMISTON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
67° 50°
67° 41°
67° 41°
OREGON FORECAST
ALMANAC
Shown is today’s weather. Temperatures are today’s highs and tonight’s lows.
PENDLETON
through 3 p.m. yest.
HIGH
LOW
TEMP.
Seattle
Olympia
50/36
65/39
70/35
Longview
Kennewick Walla Walla
71/45
Lewiston
59/39
78/42
Astoria
51/39
Pullman
Yakima 74/37
57/36
73/44
Portland
Hermiston
66/41
The Dalles 76/42
Salem
Corvallis
63/35
Yesterday
Normals
Records
La Grande
67/41
PRECIPITATION
John Day
Eugene
Bend
67/36
69/38
70/38
Ontario
73/38
Caldwell
Burns
65°
25°
61°
37°
77° (1964) 24° (1930)
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
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Albany
63/33
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0.12"
0.87"
1.20"
0.48"
3.11"
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71/32
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through 3 p.m. yest.
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TEMP.
Pendleton 65/39
64/35
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
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Last year to date
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HERMISTON
Enterprise
73/43
70/41
65°
27°
58°
37°
82° (1923) 21° (1936)
PRECIPITATION
Moses
Lake
57/38
Aberdeen
63/37
65/38
Tacoma
Yesterday
Normals
Records
Spokane
Wenatchee
57/42
Today
Boardman
Pendleton
Medford
77/42
Fri.
WSW 7-14
WSW 7-14
WSW 4-8
NW 4-8
SUN AND MOON
Klamath Falls
69/31
Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2021
Sunrise today
Sunset tonight
Moonrise today
Moonset today
6:35 a.m.
7:24 p.m.
none
9:00 a.m.
Last
New
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Apr 4
Apr 11
Apr 19
Apr 26
NATIONAL EXTREMES
Yesterday’s National Extremes: (for the 48 contiguous states)
High 92° in Camarillo, Calif. Low -5° in Daniel, Wyo.
In connection with his
commodity futures trading,
Easterday also defrauded the
CME Group, which operates
the world’s largest financial
derivatives exchange. On
two separate occasions, the
press release said, Easterday
submitted falsified paperwork
to the CME that resulted in the
company exempting Easter-
day Ranches from other-
wise-applicable position
limits in live cattle futures
contracts.
“I commend the agents
with the Federal Deposit
Insurance Company Office of
the Inspector General and the
U.S. Postal Inspection Service
for their dedication to investi-
gating this case and tenacity
in ferreting out the fraudulent
activity to which the defen-
dant has pleaded guilty,” said
Acting U.S. Attorney Joseph
H. Harrington for the Eastern
District of Washington.
Easterday pleaded guilty
to one count of wire fraud and
agreed to repay $244 million
in restitution. He is scheduled
to be sentenced on Wednes-
day, Aug. 4, and faces a maxi-
mum penalty of 20 years in
prison. A federal district court
judge will determine any
sentence after considering the
U.S. Sentencing Guidelines
and other statutory factors.
Tyson Foods is the world’s
second-largest processor and
marketer of chicken, beef and
pork. The company does not
own or operate feedlots, but
employs buyers in beef-pro-
ducing areas who visit inde-
pendent feed yards and public
auctions to buy animals for its
processing plants — including
one near Pasco, which Easter-
day Ranches supplied.
Tyson entered into a cattle
feeding agreement with East-
erday Ranches in 2017. In a
filing with the U.S. Securities
and Exchange Commission,
Tyson reported that Easter-
day provided roughly 2% of
the company’s beef during the
last four fiscal years.
Gary Mickelson, senior
director of public relations
for Tyson, said in January the
company became aware of
fraud during a recent compa-
ny-led inspection.
“As we disclosed in
December, this misappropri-
ation of funds has cost Tyson
more than $200 million,
which the company is work-
ing to recoup,” Mickelson
said. “We are also working
with our outside auditor to
implement additional finan-
cial controls to help prevent
or detect this type of activity
in the future.”
Easterday Farms, part of
the family’s multi-pronged
agricultural operation, is
working to revive Oregon’s
second-largest dairy, the
former Lost Valley Farm
near Boardman. The family
registered a new business
in Oregon, called Easter-
day Dairy LLC, which is
now seeking state approval
to reopen the dairy in rural
Morrow County with up to
28,300 total cattle.
In a February statement
to the Capital Press, Cole
Easterday, one of the owners
of Easterday Dairy, said the
company is still working to
secure a Confined Animal
Feeding Operation, or CAFO,
permit from the Oregon
Department of Agriculture
and Department of Environ-
mental Quality to reopen the
dairy near Boardman.
Ambulance service answers
the call for fires, COVID-19
By BILL BRADSHAW
Wallowa County Chieftain
NORTH POWDER —
An ambulance service based
in North Powder that often
helps with wildfire victims
has turned its attention to
the still-raging COVID-19
pandemic which, unlike last
year’s wildfires, has not yet
subsided.
Owned by Chris Arvidson,
of Baker City, Med Transport
is a privately held ambulance
service that responds to calls
— in addition to Oregon — in
California, Texas, Maryland
and New Jersey. Arvidson said
he has a pool of 45 paramed-
ics and a handful of emergency
medical technicians who can
be deployed.
“We have changed the
services offered by our service
and have been fortunate to send
out the experienced personnel
to represent our community
and our service throughout the
country,” Arvidson said in a
press release.
In Eastern Oregon, para-
medics reside in Enterprise,
Baker City, La Grande and
Pendleton, Arvidson said.
Sean Cariss, who has
worked on fires and disas-
ter-relief assignments with the
service, is based in Enterprise.
He got started with Med Trans-
port while working part time in
eastern Umatilla County and
Arvidson called where he was
working looking for additional
staff.
“I spent a good part of Octo-
ber on an ambulance with him
in Central Oregon,” Arvid-
son said in the release. “He’s
a competent paramedic and is
currently finishing up his criti-
cal-care certifications while on
deployments.”
While Med Transport
used to chiefly do interfacility
transfers, the service got heav-
ily into wildfire relief and, last
year, doing vaccination clinics.
Of late, Cariss said, he’s been
to California and New Jersey
doing such clinics.
“They’re all over the place,”
he said. “Wherever the federal
government asks to have
resources sent.”
Med Transport is getting
involved with a variety of activ-
ities to combat the pandemic.
The press release mentioned
COVID step-down units that,
Cariss said, are field hospitals
where lower-risk patients are
sent while recovering from
the virus when hospitals are at
capacity.
“We did see some pretty
sick COVID patients, although
they’re now on the road to
recovery,” he said.
There also are COVID infu-
sion centers, such as in Cali-
fornia where the state health
authority is trying experimen-
tal medication to help with
symptoms of the virus, he said.
Cariss said in an inter-
view that he’s only been with
Med Transport since Septem-
ber 2020. He’s been living in
Enterprise since 2017, primar-
ily working as a paramedic, but
also doing wildland firefight-
ing.
“It’s not guaranteed work.
It’s contract work,” he said. “It’s
hit-and-miss stuff.”
Cariss said it works well
since it’s just him and his wife.
“If I had kids, it’d be
harder,” he said.
In Eastern Oregon, Med
Transport has at least three
other paramedics, the release
stated. Bruce Cheeseman
is based in La Grande, Nick
Cripe is based in Baker City,
and Mark Lewis is a recently
retired firefighter paramedic
from Pendleton.
“Some of our medics have
done multiple deployments of
up to 30 days and some have
been out for over 90 days,”
Arvidson said in the release.
NATIONAL WEATHER TODAY
IN BRIEF
No injuries in blaze at ODOT
facility in La Grande
LA GRANDE — Nobody was hurt in a fire
at an Oregon Department of Transportation sign
shop building in La Grande on Monday, March
29, which caused the structure’s roof, ceiling
and garage doors to collapse.
Firefighters had to deal with high winds
during the blaze, which was first reported
shortly before 11 a.m.
“The wind was quite a factor,” said Emmitt
Cornford, chief of the La Grande Fire Depart-
ment.
The wind accelerated the blaze but did not
spread any embers that endangered nearby
buildings or property, Cornford said.
He said firefighters were positioned upwind
of the blaze to prevent flames or embers from
being blown at them.
Twenty-two firefighters from the La Grande
and the La Grande Rural fire departments
responded to the blaze. The La Grande Fire
Department sent a ladder truck and an engine to
the blaze and La Grande Rural sent two engines.
Fire officials say the blaze was caused by the
malfunction of a ceiling heater exhaust system
in the building’s attic. Cornford and Deputy
State Fire Marshal Casey Kump made this
determination after conducting an investigation.
— EO Media Group
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