LOGANSPORT, Ind. — GIPSA, the USDA’s Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration, has filed a complaint against Logansport’s Stony Pike Livestock Commission and its owners, Ronald “Butch” Bullard Jr. and Kevin Bullard.

The complaint alleges that Stony Pike, under the direction of the Bullards, failed to properly maintain the custodial account; had multiple custodial account shortages caused by failing to deposit into the custodial account an amount equal to the proceeds receivable from the sale of consigned livestock; failed to keep and maintain records fully and correctly disclosing all transactions involved in the business; and failed to keep and main records showing the true identity of livestock purchasers.

“We’ve admitted our mistakes,” Butch Bullard said in a telephone interview. “Nothing criminal was done. We’re not in trouble, and we don’t intend to shut down. The complaints are trivial.”

Catherine M. Grasso, a GIPSA spokesperson, however, said the decision has not yet come down. “This is an ongoing investigation,” she said. Stephanie Feinberg, also of GIPSA, was unavailable for comment.

Livestock sales revenues at stockyards such as Stony Pike go into a custodial account according to federal regulations. Payment to the livestock owners come from that account and usually are issued almost immediately after a Stony Pike sale, according to the Bullards. GIPSA requires that livestock consigners such as Stony Pike keep the account balanced using reimbursements from its own general funds, should a buyer’s payment come in more than a week after a sale. A GIPSA program analyst described the action to a Logansport Pharos-Tribune reporter as one in which the Bullards basically bankroll the buyer: “The problem here is reimbursement,” the analyst said.

According to Butch, president of the company he and Kevin took over from their father, Ronald Bullard Sr., in 2010, their bank always knew the stockyards would make a deposit to cover their checks.  “We’ve never sent checks back,” he said.

A similar GIPSA action alleges that Boswell Livestock Commis-sion, Co., Inc. of Boswell, Ind. – also owned by the Bullards – failed to property maintain their custodial account; failed to charge all consignors the correct posted rates and charges specified in its schedule of rates and charges filed with the Secretary of Agriculture at the time services were furnished; and failed to keep and maintain records that fully and correctly disclosed all transactions involved in their business.

The Boswell sale barn does not have a computer, the Bullards said, acknowledging that instead of charging a 3 percent commission on the first $500 and 2 percent on all sales after that, a few customers were charged a straight 2 percent.

“I don’t know how it happened,” Butch said. “It was a mistake.

“Nothing criminal was done,” he reiterated. “We’ve corrected everything. And we certainly haven’t lost any business. In fact, all this publicity might remind someone to give us a call.”