Third KY farmer sentenced for multi-million-dollar crop fraud conspiracy
A Kentucky farmer will spend 3 1/2 years in prison for his role in defrauding the federal government of more than $5 million in a crop fraud scheme.
David Hunt, of Taylor County, was sentenced Nov. 17 to a federal charge of conspiracy to commit money laundering.
He is one of at least nine people prosecutors say participated in the scheme that defrauded the United States Department of Agriculture of $5,427,365 in crop insurance indemnity payments across six years.
“A number of agricultural producers in Kentucky, the very people this program was designed to protect, abused this system to steal from the federal coffers and profit unjustly from taxpayer dollars,” federal prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memorandum.
Hunt pleaded guilty to the charge in March.
According to Hunt’s charging document, he wrote checks to Farmers Tobacco Warehouse for tobacco, used the canceled checks as evidence that his tobacco production was short, and “corruptly influenced” his insurance company to make payments.
The warehouse paid him back, according to the charge.
Hunt also admitted he took out crop insurance in his son’s name to qualify for bigger payouts; wrote a check to another farmer to make it appear he’d had to buy tobacco; and sold tobacco under other people’s names to hide his production.
Prosecutors said Hunt’s actions have no explanation other than greed.
“Unlike many other farmers who have committed this crime, Hunt does not appear to suffer from troublesome debt,” prosecutors wrote. “This leaves greed and the ease of obtaining unearned income as the principal motivators.”
Farmers Tobacco Warehouse as since closed.
David Wisdom, of Barren County, was sentenced Nov. 6 to four years in prison and ordered to pay almost $2 million in restitution. He pleaded guilty in February to a charge of conspiracy to defraud the U.S.
According to court documents, Wisdom wrote checks showing he bought tobacco from Farmers Tobacco Warehouse, creating the impression his crops had been short, and he needed to buy tobacco to fulfill his contract.
The warehouse’s former manager, Thomas Kirkpatrick, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering in July. Kirkpatrick was sentenced Nov. 6 to six years in prison.
