Grain Growers Faces Fine And Payments

A grain growers’ cooperative has been fined and ordered to pay back a federal agency billed for the storage costs of grain that had already been sold.

Walla Walla Grain Growers pleaded guilty in January to violating agreements with the federal Commodity Credit Corp.

On Friday, U.S. District Judge Alan McDonald in Yakima fined the company $18,000, ordered it to pay $11,000 restitution and put it on probation for five years.

The cooperative had temporarily been suspended from participating in the federal emergency grainstorage program, but was reinstated as part of the plea agreement.

The charges stem from a 1993 federal audit that found the cooperative had illegally sold grain it had held in storage for the Commodity Credit Corp. from 1989-1992, then billed the agency for storing grain that had been shipped.