The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) last week filed suit against Agridime LLC, a Texas-based company accused of operating a $161 million Ponzi scheme. The CFTC filed the complaint to the Texas Northern District Court against the corporation and its co-founders, Joshua Link, Gilbert AZ, and Jed Wood, Ft. Worth, TX.
In the complaint, Agridime and its co-founders are accused of deceiving thousands of customers across 14 states between 2021 and December 11, 2023. Link and Wood allegedly solicited and accepted customer funds under false pretenses, using them to pay other customers in a Ponzi-like manner.
The lawsuit claims Agridime solicited more than $161 million to buy cattle from more than 2,000 customers. The CFTC seeks restitution to defrauded customers, civil monetary penalties, trading bans, and a permanent injunction against further violations of the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) and CFTC regulations.
According to the CFTC, Agridime operated an online platform that purportedly allowed customers to buy and sell cattle and pitched victims with the prospect of guaranteed annual rates of return between at least 15% and 20%. As advertised, Agridime’s cattle purchase program afforded customers the opportunity to buy and sell cattle without the actual day-to-day care of the cattle, or as Agridime stated in solicitation materials, purchasers of livestock would “make money raising cattle without having to do all the work.”
As further alleged in the Agridime cattle program, customers supposedly bought cattle, typically for $2,000 a head, and Agridime was to handle the feeding and care of the cattle, via farmers with whom Agridime partnered, until the cattle were ready to be processed and the beef sold.
As alleged in the complaint, Agridime represented the customers’ funds would be used only for the purchase, raising, and feeding of the purchased cattle. Instead, because Agridime did not buy the number of cattle required to fulfill its obligations under the livestock contracts, Agridime had to use recent customers’ funds to pay the guaranteed profits of earlier customers. In addition, as further alleged, upon information and belief, customers’ funds were also used to pay approximately $11 million in undisclosed commissions to Agridime personnel, including to Link, his wife, and Wood.
