KY man admits taking part in crop-insurance fraud totaling nearly $1 million
A Central Kentucky farmer has admitted taking part in a crop-insurance scam that cost the federal government nearly $1 million.
David Leech pleaded guilty May 13 to a charge of conspiring to commit an offense against the U.S. by making false statements on federally-backed insurance policies on tobacco crops.
Leech filled out policy applications saying he owned farms in Clark, Bourbon, Bath and Nicholas counties when in fact someone else owned the land and farmed it, according to his plea agreement.
The scam sometimes helped the other farmer get a higher payout under the policies.
In addition, spreading his loss claims among other people, including Leech, helped the landowner avoid oversight, according to the charge.
The documents in Leech’s case identify the man he helped only by the initials E.L.P. Those match Earl Lee Planck Jr., who is charged separately with conspiring to defraud the government through false insurance claims.
Planck has pleaded not guilty.
The charge against Leech said he took part in the conspiracy from the spring of 1999 until April 2014.
As a result of his misrepresentations on crop-insurance documentation, Leech caused an insurance loss of $940,754 in crop years 2006 to 2013, he admitted.
That’s the amount of restitution that could be ordered to an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The maximum prison sentence on the charge would be five years.
The cases against Leech and Planck are part of a larger investigation of crop-insurance fraud in Central Kentucky in which 20 people have been charged or pleaded guilty.
