Minnesota-based ag co-op CHS is in trouble for fudged figures. Evidently an employee deliberately overstated the value of CHS’s rail freight contracts by maybe $190 million over the past four years.
CEO Jay D. Debertin said last month “there was no monetary loss to CHS.” But there was certainly some financial gain for Debertin and fellow execs:
Over the past three years, CHS has awarded $20.6 million in incentive pay and $1.2 million in bonuses to six top executives including CEO Jay Debertin, CFO Timothy Skidmore and former CEO Carl Casale. Asked whether the company planned to take back any of the performance pay, since the company’s performance was not as good as had been reported, a CHS spokeswoman declined to comment, saying executive pay is a personnel matter [Adam Belz, “Quiet Shakeup Begins at CHS After Fraud and Overstated Profits,” Minneapolis Star Tribune, 2018.11.13].
CHS operates nine facilities in the CHS Farmers Alliance in South Dakota. Nine other southeast South Dakota facilities are part of a CHS branch based in Brandon and reaching into southwest Minnesota. Six more operate in a Pierre-baed co-op; six more north central South Dakota locations work with three North Dakota facilities in a Gettysburg-based co-op. They are due some portion of the planned $150 million in annual remittance of cash patronage and equity redemptions CHS announced prior to the revelation of this financial misconduct.
CHS operates a lot more than 9 facilities in South Dakota. Find more information here:
https://www.chsbrandon.com/
Thanks, Darin! I’ll correct the text above and add Brandon, Pierre, Gettysburg… others?
It sounds like a case ripe for claw back and redistribution to members. The perp of the fraud ought to be fired, at least.
Just what the AG community needs with low prices and uncertain markets and the orange butthead in the kremlin annex to screw everything up.
Other SD CHS locations: Baltic, Garretson, Colton, Hurley, Worthing, Canton, Davis and Elkton.