Fraud can, of course, be greater or lesser, relatively benign or deeply tragic, and sometimes worse. As a business ethics keynote speaker, business ethics consultant and author, I have seen every manner of fraud. This particular case, the fraud committed by Garland Joseph Nelson, also involves murder. He has just been sentenced and will die in federal prison.
A commodity
The fraud seems to recall the days of the Old West, when cattle theft ran rampant. Cattle raising and rearing is arguably one of America’s first, major agri-business stories. There are thousands of legitimate businesses that, like “J4s Farm Enterprises, Inc.,” a business started by Nelson’s mother, that raise cattle entrusted to them by investors and/or other cattle ranchers. Garland Nelson worked for his mother.
The transaction was simple enough. According to NBCNews-15 in Missouri, Nelson “agreed to take care of cattle that belonged to Diemel’s Livestock, which invested and traded in livestock, by feeding and pasturing them. He also agreed to sell them and send Diemel’s Livestock the proceeds, less the cost of raising the cattle.”
Garland Joseph Nelson is a monster. He took receipt of several truckloads of cattle between November 2018 through April 2019. He actually sold a fraction of the total number. He intentionally starved many of the calves to death though he charged for feeding and housing a greater number.
Without further embellishment of his crimes, he kept the feed bales wrapped in their original shrink wrap so that many of the calves actually choked to death while trying to feed. In court, he admitted to the fraud and was sentenced to 32-years in prison and ordered to pay about $261,000 in restitution. For quite some time the Diemel brothers pressed Nelson for payment.
“In June 2019, Nelson sent the Diemel’s a bad check for $215,936 while his bank account had a balance of 21 cents. The check had also been intentionally torn or damaged so it couldn’t be cashed.”
He was playing a game. He invited them to Missouri to get their money. They arrived at Nelson’s mother’s farm in Braymer, Missouri. He was alone at the farm when they arrived. That was where the fraud turned tragic.
Murder by a fraudster
Nelson killed both brothers by using a rifle when they arrived and tried to dispose of their bodies. As a business ethics keynote speaker, business ethics consultant and author, I have seen every manner of fraud but the psychopathic behavior of Nelson climbs to the top of the list.
As the case unfolded, it was revealed that in 2015, he was involved in similar frauds (emphasis on the plural), one costing the victims more than $262,000. He has also been found guilty of passing bad checks.
This case of fraud with the murderous results was bound to have taken place, for this monster of a human being seemed to lack a conscious. It is impossible to understand how he skated away from the full force of the courts for such a long time unless the system and family enabled him. As a business ethics motivational speaker, I can’t help but wonder what the mindset of law enforcement might have been?
“Fortunately,” and I use that word with great caution, this man was unable to completely dispose of the remains of his victims. This case should be taught in every school of law in the country, not for its gruesome details, but as an example of what occurs when unethical behavior is allowed to spiral in an uncontrolled free-fall.
In law schools, when some student asks the question: How far is a fraudster willing to go? The truest answer is that some fraudsters will go as far as they can.
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