Nebraska Cattle Fraud Attorneys

Fraud happens frequently in the livestock business and investment industry. As with any form of fraud, individuals are prosecuted for participation in intentionally deceptive promises or lies made for personal or financial gain. Defrauding people or businesses of money can be a serious offense with extremely harsh penalties. In fact, cattle fraud cases routinely make media headlines because they can involve large sums of stolen or ill-gotten money and victimize many people.

Historically, cattle fraud and deceit have produced some of the most famous crimes and infamous trials in the American West. A cattle rustling, or the simple theft of animals owned by another, was a regular occurrence in the early U.S. livestock scene.

What Is Cattle Fraud?

In its modern form, cattle rustling tends to look like Madoff Ponzi Scheme more often than it resembles direct, tangible theft by backing a truck up to a cattle loading chute and stealing animals bearing someone else’s brand or other ownership indicia. It's expanded to involve intricate business and investment schemes.

People who commit cattle fraud crimes commonly target investors by solicitation of funds with promises they will buy cattle. Offenders will not purchase livestock but use the money to cover their own expenses and pay other earlier investors their "returns" from profits. These profits never actually existed and made with non-existent investments. Cattle fraud crimes can also target banks and financial institutions by way of loans or lines of credit for non-existent business endeavors.

America's Largest Cattle Fraud Scheme

At Domina Law Group, our attorneys have worked on numerous cattle fraud cases, and have even represented the majority of victims in the largest livestock fraud case in American history. The crime, committed by a man named George L. Young, and his assistant, Kathleen M. McConnell, defrauded more than $170 million from cattle investors and banks. Much like Bernie Madoff's infamous Ponzi scheme, Young's massive scheme involved fraudulent sale of the same group of cattle, perhaps a dozen times, on average, until he was 177,000 head of cattle short of the number represented to be on feed and under his management for his investors. This led to an important judicial submission on issues related to bankruptcy protection.

They were convicted of federal crimes for defrauding dozens of persons, from Great Britain to Nevada and from the Canadian to the Mexican Borders in the U.S.

After administration of the bankruptcy case and global resolution of all issues, Young attempted to upset the apple cart by claiming the Bankruptcy Court was without any authority to issue any orders because Young claims to be a farmer. Farmers cannot be placed in involuntary bankruptcy proceedings.

When the scheme crumbled, more than half of the victimized investors turned to David Domina to protect their rights. With our dedication and aggressive legal help, investors were able to recover a large amount of their money.

The result was a massive loss to the investors, but Domina Law Group's efforts reduced the loss and permitted investors to recover back “at least three times what it looked like would have occurred, without the aggressive efforts on behalf of our clients. We never had a chance to get all the money back because the cattle did not exist, so the value did not exist. There was no question of fighting someone else to get our share. The fight was over fractions, and under the circumstances, our folks did quite well,” Dave Domina explained.

Experience Handling High-Profile Cattle Fraud Cases

Domina Law Group has more than 50 years of combined experience and has worked on numerous and high-profile cattle fraud cases. If you have been a victim of cattle or livestock fraud, our firm can provide you with qualified legal assistance and will fight for your rights. When you work with our firm, you can be confident you chose lawyers who will support you every step of the way. We work closely with all of our clients and evaluate each case on a personal basis. Our experience, dedication and commitment set us above the rest.