Four executives of Eastern Livestock have entered guilty pleas in court, and will be ordered to pay restitution to 170 beef producers they de-frauded. Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway says the pleas were entered in Barren-Metcalfe Circuit Court.
Attorney General Conway told Kentucky Public Radio, " we’ll get nearly a million dollars paid in restitution. We’ve identified all of the farmers who were scammed by this in the Attorney General’s Office, and we will be contacting them to refund the restitution distribution to them.” The Attorney General says the four executives will be sentenced in Barren-Metcalfe Circuit Court in June.
Eastern Livestock founder Tommy Gibson and former Chief Financial Officer Steve Mc Donald are facing ten years in prison, which will run concurrent to any Federal sentence they receive. Former Eastern Livestock accountant Darren Brangers of Louisville and former Eastern Livestock affiliate Grant Gibson of Lanesville, Indiana, are each facing five years in prison, probated upon the repayment of restitution.
Prosecutors say the Eastern Livestock executives falsely inflated accounts to buy cattle from Kentucky beef producers with what amounted to non-existent funds.
