According to a federal lien filed Wednesday morning in Franklin County, Washington.
Cody Easterday is presently serving an 11-year prison sentence in a federal prison in California for defrauding Tyson Fresh Meats and a King County-based firm named Segale out of more than $244 million in cattle.
The Easterday “Ghost Herd” tale lasted many years and featured some of America’s greatest farmers, including Bill Gates and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who fought over vast swaths of water-rich Easterday farmland along the Columbia River.
The $12.5 million lien applies to everything Cody and Debby Easterday possess, including property, residences, and automobiles, as well as potential profits.
According to the paperwork, the lien is for taxes payable in 2021. when was also the year when two of the couple’s companies, Easterday Farms and Easterday Ranches, declared federal bankruptcy. That same year, the couple’s companies sold a vast feedlot north of Pasco dubbed the “North Lot” for $10 million, as well as another group of farms in Benton County for about $210 million.
The federal lien, according to IRS papers, secures the government’s entitlement to money from the couple before any later creditors who may make claims. The federal government has 30 days after sending a “Notice of Intent to Levy” and informing the couple of their right to a hearing to take property.
“If you don’t pay your overdue taxes, make other arrangements to satisfy the tax debt, or request a hearing within 30 days of the date of this notice, we may seize your property,” according to an IRS collection procedure document.
The bankruptcy of Easterday Farms and Easterday Ranches included significant Benton County farms and the Cox feedlot; none of the earnings went to Cody Easterday. The source of these extra taxes is unknown, although the Easterdays have other assets that were not included in the bankruptcy. Easterdays’ produce enterprise and massive produce barns in Franklin County are among them.
Some of the Easter children own a struggling mega-dairy near Boardman, Oregon, and operate Triple E Farms, which farms potatoes, onions, and other crops across the Columbia Basin.
