June 21, 2010
Dealers suspected of USDA feed assistance fraud
The US filed a False Claims Act suit against a number of local feed dealers for involving in the improper export of USDA-owned nonfat dry milk that was earmarked for livestock producers in designated states.
Companies alleged to have violated the False Claims Act include R&J Feed Co., Jerry Goodwin, Richard Carter and Carter Livestock Inc., the Justice Department announced today (Jun 21).
The case involves the USDA's livestock feed assistance initiatives in 2002 and 2003 to provide protein-enriched feed to ranchers. To that end, the USDA provided nonfat dry milk to feed dealers at little or no cost for incorporation into livestock feed.
Feed dealers who participated in the program were required to certify, among other things, that the nonfat dry milk received under the programme would only be used to produce feed to be fed to livestock in specifically enumerated drought stricken states within the US.
The complaint alleges the defendants falsely certified that they would abide by these use restrictions but, in fact, facilitated and profited from the export of millions of pounds of programme's nonfat dry milk to other countries.