GILBERT, Ariz. — The Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) halted an apparent $191 million cattle Ponzi scheme allegedly perpetrated by Agridime LLC, which is co-owned by a man from Gilbert.
Josh Link of Gilbert and Jed Wood of Forth Worth own the Texas-based company Agridime, which the SEC alleges diverted millions of dollars of investor funds to make Ponzi payments and to pay undisclosed sales commissions to themselves and others.
According to the complaint filed by the SEC on Dec. 11, the defendants 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.
The defendants told investors that the company would use their funds to acquire, feed and raise cattle on its network of ranches, a release from the SEC said. Agridime officials said the investors would help provide "fellow Americans with the highest quality farm fresh beef available," according to the SEC press release.
The complaint alleges Agridime did not purchase enough cattle or generate enough revenue to deliver the promised returns. Instead, since December of 2022, Link and Wood allegedly 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.
“The defendants enticed investors with guarantees that they could ‘make money raising cattle without having to do all the work,’ but as we allege in our complaint, their promises of annual returns of 15‑32 percent were, in the defendants’ own words, ‘too good to be true,’” said Eric Werner, Director of the SEC’s Fort Worth Regional Office.
The complaint charges the defendants with violating the antifraud and registration provisions of the federal securities laws. The emergency relief granted by the court allowed the SEC to halt the alleged Ponzi scheme. The SEC said they will also be seeking preliminary and permanent injunctions, disgorgement, prejudgment interest, civil penalties and officer and director bars against Link and Wood.
A hearing is scheduled for Dec. 20 on the SEC's motion for a preliminary injunction.
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