Cattleman from Hereford, Texas Sentenced to Nine Years in Federal Prison and Ordered to Pay More Than $9 Million in Restitution for Making False Statements on Loan Application
Tyler Holstein Remanded Into Custody Following This Afternoon’s Sentencing Hearing

AMARILLO, TX—Tyler Holstein, the owner of J Bar H Cattle Company in Hereford, Texas, was sentenced this afternoon by U.S. District Judge Mary Lou Robinson to 108 months in federal prison and ordered to pay nearly $9.3 million in restitution, following his guilty plea in August 2011 to one count of making a false statement on a loan application. Following the sentencing hearing, Judge Robinson remanded Holstein, 34, to the custody of the U.S. Marshal Service to begin serving his sentence.

According to documents filed in the case, Tyler Holstein owned and operated J Bar H Cattle Company a 10,000 head feedyard in Hereford, Texas, where cattle were “grown” to a larger weight. He financed his feedyard at Happy State Bank in Amarillo, Texas. As a condition of his extension of credit, he was required to submit borrowing base reports and be subject to inspections of his feedyard. Friona Industries, LP, in Amarillo, was a large cattle business that bought and processed cattle. Friona Industries bought cattle from the Holstein, but sometime in 2009, Holstein began feeding cattle that Friona Industries had already purchased. Over time, the defendant’s borrowing base reports to the bank reflected that he owned the cattle, when they actually were owned by Friona Industries.

Holstein also opened a line of credit at Amarillo National Bank. He later sold cattle that he had purchased with the line of credit from the bank but did not apply the proceeds of the sale of the cattle to the line of credit as required

The case was investigated by the FBI. Assistant U.S. Attorney Christy Drake of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Amarillo, prosecuted the case.