https://www.wsj.com/finance/cattle-empire-ponzi-scheme-3d245791
Very interesting story of the Bernie Madoff of cattle, who fleeced millions from banks and investors before killing himself.
It seems to me that he would have done okay provided he had not gotten greedy and kept showing fake transactions. Modest loans could have covered expenses and he could have declared bankruptcy if paying everything back was too much.
Sad day. What a web we weave when we seek to deceive.
Very interesting story of the Bernie Madoff of cattle, who fleeced millions from banks and investors before killing himself.
Quote:
For years, McClain had kept cattle here in his hometown and on the Texas Panhandle, buying calves at auction and selling them for profit three months later. His 80,000-head operation-powered by a $50 million loan from an agricultural bank and $120 million from investors-appeared to be a blowout success for the former chemicals plant worker… He also had a big secret: Most of the cattle were imaginary.
Once the lender got around to a physical check to count cattle and value McClain's collateral/the first full inspection after more than four years of sending him money-it enumerated only 8,916 animals.
In the end, the rancher burned through the $170 million taken in from the bank and investors-some of them friends from his small Kentucky town. He managed to placate the bank when it occasionally raised concerns about financial figures that just didn't make sense-including how his feed costs were wildly out of tune with the number of animals he claimed. And he kept his investors on board by paying out "shares of the profits," which often stayed on paper as they rolled them into new investments.
He made around $2 billion in cattle transactions to build his "ghost herd," according to bank records filed in Texas federal bankruptcy court, which is trying to pick apart the web of alleged fraud. The mystery that forensic accountants haven't found an answer to remains, where did the money go?
It seems to me that he would have done okay provided he had not gotten greedy and kept showing fake transactions. Modest loans could have covered expenses and he could have declared bankruptcy if paying everything back was too much.
Quote:
McClain's elaborate scheme came apart in April 2023, when a local truck dealer who had invested around $650,000 insisted on repayment. After bounced checks, he brought in the county sheriff.
The rancher killed himself before the law could arrive.
Sad day. What a web we weave when we seek to deceive.
The left cannot kill the Spirit of Charlie Kirk.