Five people face federal charges in what prosecutors have described as $220 million cattle fraud case, officials said.
A Fort Worth grand jury handed down the indictments on Wednesday, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas.
Jed Wood, of Fort Worth; Joshua Link, of Strafford, Mo.; Tia Link, of Smithton, Mo.; Taylor Bang, of Kildeer, N.D.; and Royana Thomas, of Arlington face various charges in the case, including money laundering, wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
Joshua Link remains wanted, according to a bulletin from the FBI.
U.S. Attorney Ryan Raybould in a news release said the suspects defrauded “thousands of unwitting investors, ranchers and others in the cattle industry” across the country.
“My office, in concert with our law enforcement partners, will hold these defendants accountable and pursue justice on behalf of the victims,” Raybould said.
Joshua Rothrock, the FBI Dallas Special Agent in Charge, said the suspects “used false promises to lure prospective clients” and then took the money “to enrich themselves.”
The suspects were allegedly involved with Agridime, a Fort Worth-headquartered business that offered cattle sales and meat processing services, according to a release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
From January 2021 to December 2023, the suspects were accused of falsely representing themselves to cattle buyers, rancher and feedlots, the release said. Agridime was supposed to take money from clients to buy cattle for clients and raise the cattle before selling the meat and giving clients a share of the profit. Instead, the release said, the suspects took the money to pay Agridime operating expenses and other funds owed by the company. The suspects also used the money to pay personal expenses and buy real estate, the release said.
Agridime had promised clients investment returns of 15% to 32%, according to Link’s FBI bulletin. But they only purchased a fraction of the cattle they received money for, the bulletin said.
Agridime is currently under a receivership as the case plays out, according to its website.
A statement on the Agridime website said the suspects had used at least $58 million of new investor funds “to make Ponzi payments to prior investors” and more than $11 million to pay “undisclosed sales commissions” to the suspects.
In all, the suspects are accused of taking $220 million from more than 2,200 individual victims across the country, prosecutors said.
Wire fraud and wire fraud conspiracy charges carry up to 20 years of federal prison, per charge. Money laundering charges carry up to 10 years in federal prison.