Tyson – Financial Treason & Crime

Michelle Rook, 24 May 2021

Cattle producers have significantly struggled over the last few years, and industry leaders continue to look for a solution to what they call a broken market.

The cattle industry continues to struggle to find a solution to what they call a broken market due to anti-competitive practices and market manipulation by the meat packing industry.

Cattle producers have significantly struggled over the last few years. In 2019, a fire at the Tyson beef plant in Holcomb, Kan., created significant market disruptions. In 2020, COVID-19 related plant closures led to additional supply chain disruptions and processing capacity shortfalls across the country. Department of Justice investigations into both incidents have not produced any results. Meanwhile, the industry is again facing a major disconnect between the record profits meat packers are making as a result of high boxed beef prices and the losses cattle producers are facing in the country with low cash prices. It appears plant labor shortfalls remain an issue. Continue reading “Article: Cattle market continues search for a market fix”

04/16/202104/17/2021

Article: JBS Offers Eateries $13M In New ‘Ice-Breaker’ Pork Settlement

Article - Media, Publications

JBS Offers Eateries $13M In New ‘Ice-Breaker’ Pork Settlement

Bryan Koenig, 16 April 2021

JBS USA Food Co. has settled with more plaintiffs in litigation accusing meat-processing giants of scheming to inflate pork prices, with commercial and institutional indirect buyers asking a Minnesota federal judge to preliminarily greenlight a $12.75 million deal.

This would be the first settlement these plaintiffs, which include a number of restaurant chains, have reached with meatpackers. JBS has already cut multimillion-dollar deals with direct buyers and consumer indirect purchasers, both of which similarly called their settlements “ice-breakers” that, like Thursday’s agreement, come with promises to help with ongoing claims against other pork producers such as Clemens, Hormel, Tyson and Smithfield.

In their motion for preliminary approval Thursday, the commercial and institutional buyers, which include Longhorn’s Steakhouse, defined the settlement class as anyone who indirectly bought pork from the defendants “during the settlement class period for their own business use in commercial food preparation” based on a class period starting in 2009. Continue reading “Article: JBS Offers Eateries $13M In New ‘Ice-Breaker’ Pork Settlement”

04/15/202104/15/2021

Article: Rippling Cyberattacks Force Corporate Boards to Rethink Risk

Article - Media, Publications

Rippling Cyberattacks Force Corporate Boards to Rethink Risk

Andrea Vittorio, Jake Holland, 15 April 2021

Corporate boards, in the wake of cyberattacks on software providers SolarWinds Corp. and Microsoft Corp., are seeking out expertise from consultants, lawyers and associations that offer cybersecurity training—an oversight boost that could cushion them legally in the event they’re sued or penalized by regulators after a breach.

The recent hits have forced boards of directors to rethink cybersecurity challenges and their potential ripple effects as companies face mounting legal and reputational risks from costly hacks. The attacks also show how cyber incidents in a connected system can quickly spread to contaminate thousands of companies at once. Continue reading “Article: Rippling Cyberattacks Force Corporate Boards to Rethink Risk”

03/31/202104/01/2021

Article: WA rancher Easterday pleads guilty to stealing $244M in ‘ghost cattle’ scam

Article - Media, Publications

WA rancher Easterday pleads guilty to stealing $244M in ‘ghost cattle’ scam

KRISTIN M. KRAEMER, 31 March 2021

The president of one of the largest agricultural operations in Washington state has admitted concocting a scheme to defraud Tyson Foods and another company out of more than $244 million.

Cody A. Easterday, 49, pleaded guilty Wednesday in U.S. District Court in a case that federal prosecutors are calling a “ghost-cattle scam.”

Easterday, who’s also chief executive officer of Easterday Ranches Inc., charged the two companies under various agreements for the costs of buying and feeding 200,000 cattle, when those cattle did not actually exist, according to a U.S. Department of Justice news release. Continue reading “Article: WA rancher Easterday pleads guilty to stealing $244M in ‘ghost cattle’ scam”