RICHLAND, Wash. — A federal judge on Monday, June 5, approved a settlement between Cody Easterday and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission that fines the former cattle feeder $1 million and imposes a lifetime ban on trading agricultural commodities.

The order, signed by U.S. District Judge Stanley Bastian in Richland, Washington, settles civil charges related to Easterday defrauding Tyson Fresh Meats out of $233 million.

In reports to the Chicago Mercantile Exchange in 2017 and 2018, Easterday inflated cattle inventory figures to increase his speculative trading in the future price of cattle, according to the settlement.

Easterday lost more than $200 million on futures contracts and sought to recoup the money by billing Tyson for more than 265,000 head of cattle that didn’t exist, according to prosecutors.

Tyson contracted with Easterday to procure and feed cattle for its plant in Pasco. Easterday, 52, pleaded guilty to wire fraud and was sentenced in October to 11 years in prison.

“Easterday cheated his best customer by lying about non-existent cattle, lied to an exchange, and broke exchange rules,” commodity commission enforcement director Ian McGinley said in a statement.

The commodity commission in 2021 reached a $30 million settlement with Easterday Ranches, which Easterday co-owned with his wife and mother.

The settlement, however, had no practical effect since the company filed for bankruptcy shortly before Easterday was indicted and had no money to pay the fine after partially paying creditors. Cody Easterday faced separate and identical charges for fraud, false reports and excessive speculative trading.

Commodity Commissioner Dawn Stump dissented from the settlement with Easterday Ranches. The commission has jurisdiction over illegal trading, but wading in on the fraud was an overreach, she wrote.