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New Video's 11/28/2011
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Livestock auction pays fine for sale violationsBILLINGS, Mont. (AP)--A Billings livestock auction has paid a $31,000 fine levied by the U.S. Department of Agriculture for poor accounting practices and allowing an auctioneer to buy cattle at consignment sales. Vermillion Ranch Co., doing business as the Billings Livestock Commission Co., did not admit to any wrongdoing, according to a Billings Gazette story published Nov. 24. Bob Cook, general manager of the Public Auction Yards and a Vermillion Ranch officer, said those were the first violations in 40 years of selling livestock and that his company decided not to contest the allegations. "We work hard at protecting our customers and getting the best price we can,'' he said. "This was basically a slip-up that was corrected immediately. We've been audited since, and everything has been 100 percent.'' Billings Livestock was fined for allowing a custodial account to fall short twice and for allowing auctioneer Ty Thompson to bid on consigned livestock, said Brett Offutt, director of the policy and litigation division of the USDA's Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration. Thompson bought 50 head of cattle directly and 1,567 head of cattle indirectly from March 1 through May 24, 2007, in transactions totaling more than $1 million, USDA officials said. The federal Packers and Stockyards Act prohibits auctioneers working the sale from such transactions. "Packers and Stockyards wants strict adherence, so I probably auction about 50 percent less than I used to,'' said Thompson, who was named the World Livestock Auctioneer Champion of the year by the Livestock Marketing Association after a competition in Minnesota in June. He said he's auctioneering less so that his business, Thompson Cattle Co., can purchase cattle through the Billings auction. Under federal rules, an auction yard has to keep sales proceeds in a custodial bank account and pay the sellers at the close of the next business day following the sale, Offutt said. The USDA found that Billings Livestock allowed a custodial account to fall short by up to six days and by about $66,000, once in November 2006 and once in January 2007. "It's considered a trust account because the money in that account doesn't belong to the auction yard because they aren't the ones selling the animal. They are holding that money in trust for the seller,'' Offutt said. Pat Goggins, who owns Billings Livestock, the Public Auction Yards and Vermillion Ranch Co., was personally dismissed from the complaint. The two Billings auctions are the largest livestock market in Montana and can auction off livestock worth $5 million on a busy fall week, officials said.
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