The U.S. Department of Agriculture entered into a stipulation agreement with J. Thomas Morrissey of Ottawa, Ill., on Oct. 31, 2023, for alleged violations of the Packers and Stockyards (P&S) Act. Under the terms of the stipulation agreement, Morrissey waived his rights to a hearing and paid a civil penalty of $7,000.
An investigation by USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service found that Morrissey was involved in a process where cattle consigned by a producer were weighed prior to the sale, and after the sale were assigned to JBS Foods for whom Morrissey was a salaried buyer. The investigation confirmed Morrissey and the producer misrepresented the price of cattle to JBS by having the markets create false and misleading records, as the cattle consigned at the auction markets were not bid on by Morrissey through competitive bidding and were instead assigned a price for JBS to pay.