SALEM, Ore. — The U.S. Department of Justice is taking over an embattled Oregon mega-dairy, citing the owner’s drug use, gambling, out-of-control spending and pending criminal charges.
Lost Valley Farm, located near Boardman, supplies milk to the Tillamook County Creamery Association, which produces Tillamook Cheese, the Statesman Journal reported .
The 11-square-mile dairy has had issues including financial and regulatory problems since it opened over a year ago.
The Justice Department is also handling owner Greg Te Velde’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy, which was filed in April to stall a bank foreclosure sale of his cattle.
He is also is facing criminal charges in California for possession of methamphetamine and trying to bribe an officer.
He declined to comment on Thursday.
Te Velde has said he has not quit using methamphetamine and is gambling at a California casino at least once a week since he filed for bankruptcy, U.S. Trustee Tracy Hope Davis wrote in a motion earlier this month. She asked a judge to either appoint a separate trustee to manage the dairy’s finances and operations on behalf of creditors or dismiss the bankruptcy case.
Davis wrote that Te Velde is accused of violating bankruptcy procedures when he moved more than $660,000 into a newly opened personal checking account less than a month before he declared bankruptcy.
