Orient Man Sentenced for Federal Crop Insurance Fraud

DES MOINES, IA – On November 16, 2018, Carl Jeffrey Campbell, age 71, of Orient, Iowa, was sentenced by United States District Court Chief Judge John A. Jarvey to three years of supervised release, with four months of home confinement for making a false statement in connection with federal crop insurance, announced United States Attorney Marc Krickbaum. Campbell was ordered to pay a $5,000 fine, $100 to the Crime Victims’ Fund, and $32,440 to the United States Department of Agriculture (“USDA”) as restitution. Campbell was also ordered to serve 160 hours of community service.

Campbell pleaded guilty to the offense on July 6, 2018. In 2014, Campbell obtained crop insurance for two farms from an insurance company that was insured by the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation. The Federal Reinsured Crop Program is administered by the Risk Management Agency, which is an agency of the United States Department of Agriculture, and the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation, which is a wholly-owned government corporation. The Federal Crop Insurance Corporation reimburses insurance companies for the indemnity payments made to policyholders under the Federal Reinsured Crop Program.

Crop shifting occurs when a farmer underreports production in a field in order to reach the percentage of loss required to receive an indemnity from their crop insurance policy. Campbell “shifted” production from one farm to another by reporting that several
thousand bushels of grain were harvested from one farm when he knew that those bushels were in fact harvested from the other farm. By reporting the bushels of grain from the incorrect farm, or shifting the production, Defendant received insurance indemnities to which he was not entitled. Defendant also “hid” production by not reporting to the USDA or Federal Crop Insurance Corporation several thousand bushels of corn sold in his son’s name. By failing to report the bushels of grain sold in his son’s name, Defendant received insurance indemnities to which he was not entitled.

This matter was investigated by the United States Department of Agriculture Office of Inspector General. The case was prosecuted by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa.