Feds: Here’s How a $200 Million Cattle Scam Happened
- Dave Price
- 5 hours ago
- 3 min read
At a time when cattle ranchers are deciding whether to replenish herds and wondering how additional beef imports from Argentina will impact the market, they are reading headlines about what investigators say has been massive fraud by a company based in Fort Worth, Texas, that collected more than $220 million.
The new development is the latest in a series since 2023 that alleged improprieties by Agridime LLC. This Fort Worth Star-Telegram article has more on the background of the investigation.
Alleged Ponzi Scheme in Cattle Sales
Court records show that federal investigators believe Agridime LLC promised investors that their money would buy and raise cattle and then sell the meat for a tidy profit. But the numbers were not legitimate, according to investigators. Complaints allege that the money and cattle did not match reality of the business operations.
New investor money would pay for previous obligations, a Ponzi scheme, according to investigators.
Key figures involved:
Jed Wood – Operations Director
Joshua Link – Executive Director
Tia Link – Marketing Director
Royana Thomas – Financial Controller
Tyler Bang – Cattle Broker
Authorities are trying to track down Agridime Executive Director Joshua Link on conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Link appears on the FBI’s “Most Wanted” list. FBI officials reported that Link has ties to various states, including Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Arkansas, Colorado, and Arizona.
The FBI’s alert about Link said this:
“Joshua Robert Link is wanted for his alleged involvement in a fraud scheme between January of 2021 and December of 2023. Through his company, Agridime LLC, Link and his co-conspirators solicited cattle contracts from buyers throughout the United States. They told prospective buyers that Agridime would purchase cattle, care for and feed the cattle, have it processed, and sell the meat through Agridime's distribution channels. Agridime offered investment returns from 15% to 32% to prospective cattle contract buyers.
In reality, Agridime purchased only a fraction of the cattle. The scheme resulted in an approximate loss of $115 million to over 2,000 cattle contract buyers nationwide. On January 29, 2026, a federal arrest warrant was issued for Link in the United States District Court, Northern District of Texas, Fort Worth Division, after he was charged with Conspiracy to Commit Wire Fraud.”
Agridime Cattle Fraud Impacted Victims Across the Country, Per Investigators
Victims from this alleged cattle scam were widespread, according to the court records. They numbered more than 2,200 and included ranchers, cattle purchasers, and feedlots.
Prosecutors accuse Agridime of advertising a return of 15 – 20% for investors, which could mean a profit of $300-400 per head. Agridime would receive a profit of approximately twice that much, according to the investigation.
Agridime has been in receivership since 2023 due to the ongoing financial questions about the company’s actions.
The company’s website includes this message following the complaint from the Securities and Exchange Commission:
“The SEC’s complaint, which was unsealed on December 13, 2023, alleges that the Defendants have raised at least $191 million from more than 2,100 investors in at least 15 states by offering and selling investments related to the supposed purchase and sale of cattle.
However, as alleged in the complaint, the Defendants did not purchase nearly enough cattle or generate sufficient revenues from cattle operations to deliver the promised returns. Instead, the complaint alleges that, since December 2022, the Defendants have 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 Wood, Link, Link’s wife, and other Agridime sales representatives.”
Agridime Sales Pitch ‘Too Good to Be True’
Some ranchers were skeptical of Agridime’s promise that they could make significant profits on cattle without doing the work of raising the cattle. “It sounded too good to be true,” Mike Vickrey -- a rancher and former Green River Valley Cattlemen’s Association President in Sublette County, Wyoming – told the Cowboy State Daily.
Vickrey said that he didn’t see how it would be possible for the company to consistently deliver the profits that it claimed.
RELATED: This American Farmland Owner story last year followed allegations of check kiting by a Midwest hog operation.
