Feds call $20 million in meat Agridime’s most valuable asset

BISMARCK — A federal agency says a defunct cattle company has about $15 million to $20 million worth of meat to sell while owing $191 million to investors, including $40 million in North Dakota.

The Securities and Exchange Commission updated the Agridime website this week with information on the case that the agency has labeled as a Ponzi scheme.

“We currently estimate that Agridime’s inventory of meat is the company’s single most valuable asset,” the Feb. 27 update says.

It says meat is being sold through a new retail website AmericanGrazedBeef.com.

“Agridime’s retail meat sales had to be halted when credit card companies no longer wanted to work with Agridime due to the federal court case, which caused a six-week hiatus in our retail operations as we worked to put a new organization and website in place,” the update says.

It notes two farms in Kansas, Morgan Creek Farms and Goracke Farms, as raising the company’s cattle.

The update says investigators are still examining Agridime’s financial records and identifying assets, including livestock. It says the company has about 6,500 head of cattle.

A complaint by the Securities and Exchange Commission alleges that Agridime raised at least $191 million from more than 2,100 investors in at least 15 states. The complaint, which was unsealed in December, says Agridime began using money from new investors to pay off previous investors, fitting the definition of a Ponzi scheme.

The complaint said Agridime sold contracts to investors promising returns of up to 32%. Agridime said investors could reap the benefits of investing in cattle without doing any work.

About $40 million, more than 20%, of the investments came from North Dakota, according to the state’s Securities Department.

A sales agent for Agridime, Taylor Bang, based in Killdeer in western North Dakota, collected more than $6 million in Agridime commissions selling unsecured investments, the Securities Department said.

North Dakota and Arizona issued a cease-and-desist order and the Securities and Exchange Commission launched an investigation.

The company was incorporated in Texas in 2017, led by Jed Wood of Texas and Josh Link of Arizona.

The complaint said from Dec. 1, 2022, to Sept. 30, 2023, Agridime began using money from new investors — at least $58 million — to pay off previous investors instead of investing in cattle and raising them.

The SEC update says there are no hearings scheduled in the case, but on Feb. 23, U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman issued an order requiring attorneys for the parties to meet “as soon as practicable” for a scheduling conference. It also requested a report from attorneys in the case, due March 8, including proposals for a timeline and how the case might proceed.

Bang is not named in the federal complaint against Agridime and Bang’s attorney, Brent Edison of the Vogel Law Firm in Fargo, said he is not involved in the federal case.

Bang told the North Dakota Monitor in December that the $6 million figure for Agridime commissions was “way high.”

Edison told the Monitor that Bang, a longtime cattle broker in the Killdeer area, was “similarly situated” as other investors.

This story was originally published on NorthDakotaMonitor.com