Easterday wants more time before reporting to federal prison for ‘ghost cattle’ scam

Cody A. Easterday is asking to stay out of prison for at least four more months while he continues to deal with issues related to the Eastern Washington agriculture conglomerate’s bankruptcy case.

A criminal attorney for the former head of Easterday Farms and Easterday Ranches wants to move sentencing from Jan. 24 to a date after April 28.

Easterday, 50, faces up to 20 years in prison on one felony count of wire fraud. He must repay $244 million in restitution as part of his guilty plea earlier this year.

“Mr. Easterday does not seek to delay sentencing indefinitely and only desires to continue his good efforts to generate as much money as possible to reduce his restitution indebtedness,” lawyer Carl J. Oreskovich wrote in court documents.

He noted that the case against the Mesa businessman resolved in “an extraordinary quick time frame” — from mid-January 2021 when the federal government started investigating him for theft to March 31 when he pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court.

Oreskovich said that federal prosecutors oppose the defense request to continue.

Chief Judge Stanley A. Bastian has scheduled a hearing Jan. 6 in a Spokane courtroom to hear arguments on the sentencing date.

The sentencing was first delayed last summer when Oreskovich had surgery and was unable to adequately prepare.

His client then asked for the January 2022 date based on his “necessary role in accomplishing the liquidation, surrender and delivery of assets that were sold as part of the bankruptcy liquidation,” Oreskovich wrote.

Easterday Ranches and Easterday Farms, the farming side of the operation, filed separately for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in February.

Over the summer, Farmland Reserve Inc. — parent company of Kennewick-based AgriNorthwest — came in with the winning bid at $209 million for 18,000 acres of agricultural land in the southeast corner of Benton County. The sale included prime Columbia River water rights for 12,000 irrigated acres.

Cattle-feeding operation

Easterday was charged with the white-collar crime came after federal officials looked into business dealings between his family’s Franklin County-based cattle-feeding operation and Tyson Foods.

He was president and chief executive officer of Easterday Ranches when he concocted a scheme to defraud Tyson and another company out of more than $244 million to offset his losses in the commodities trading markets.

Tyson Foods and its subsidiary, Tyson Fresh Meats, have been named as victims in the fraud, along with the CME Group.

However, federal prosecutors continue to keep secret the name of the other victim, only identifying it as “Company 1” — a limited liability company with its principal office in Tukwila.

Tyson operates a meat processing plant in Wallula and has had longstanding agreements with Easterday Ranches, advancing the money for the costs of feeding and raising cattle to market weight before they are sent to slaughter.

Tyson was billed twice a month for reimbursement.

Easterday charged Tyson and the other company for buying and feeding 200,000 cattle that never existed. It has been dubbed a “ghost-cattle scam” by federal prosecutors.

The fraud happened over at least four years, though court documents show Easterday’s losses on the commodity market started 10 years ago.

Tyson sued the cattle supplier seeking to get its money back, along with 54,000 head of cattle that were on an Easterday feedlot north of Pasco.

This story was originally published December 29, 2021 at 12:59 PM.