Written
by M. Sean High – Staff Attorney
On
January 27, 2016, the United States Department of Justice United States
Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina (USAO-EDNC) issued
a press release announcing that North Carolina farmer Milton Russ Barnhill had
been sentenced to 11 years in a federal prison on charges for: 1) “Conspiracy
to Make False Statement in Connection with Federal Crop Insurance;” 2) “Making
False Statements in Connection with Federal Crop Insurance;” and 3) “Mail Fraud
and Money Laundering.”
According
to USAO-EDNC, Barnhill was charged with conspiring to defraud the Federal Crop
Insurance Corporation (and the Farm Service Agency) by “produc[ing] crops which
he sold in the names of others.” USAO-EDNC stated that Barnhill and his coconspirators
“then reported on insurance claims that the crops were lost due to natural
disasters.” Additionally, USAO-EDNC asserted that Barnhill “also placed crops
and insurance policies into the names of conspirators to boost the amount of
money he could collect on the insurance claims.”
USAO-EDNC
stated that Barnhill was charged with making (and assisting others to make)
false federal crop insurance claims.
According to USAO-EDNC, Barnhill had “received more than $1 Million into
his bank account that was derived from hidden crop production, underreported
crop production, and overstated crop acreages.”
Additionally,
the USAO-EDNC press release stated that: 1) Barnhill was charged with mail
fraud after using a fictitious tobacco sales contract as collateral to secure a
farm operating loan; and 2) Barnhill was charged with money laundering after a)
proceeds from his fraudulent actions were placed in his bank account, and b) those
funds were then used to file false crop insurance claims.
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