Federal crop insurance is supposed to be a safety net for farmers, but an ongoing Central Kentucky investigation suggests that a few are defrauding the system to harvest thousands and even millions of dollars. The investigation focuses on growers who were paid twice: once by claiming losses on a tobacco crop and then receiving an insurance payment, and then receiving another payment when they sold the supposedly damaged burley to tobacco companies. In papers filed in U.S. District Court in Lexington, investigators say they think several people have filed fictitious insurance claims and committed conspiracy, mail fraud, wire fraud and money laundering. In one case, a Nicholas County farmer was paid $1.5 million for his alleged tobacco losses from 1994 to 2014, according to records filed in court. In 17 of those 20 years, he received insurance payments for crop losses. That’s an incredible string of bad luck that investigators find suspicious. That same farmer, whom the Herald-Leader is not naming because he has not been charged or indicted, was known as “an insurance farmer,” that is, “someone who farms land just to claim insurance on crops,” according to court records. For example, this farmer in 2011 claimed to have harvested just 11,221 pounds of tobacco from his fields even though he was able to nearly fulfill his contract with Philip Morris International tobacco company for 100,000 pounds. The farmer claimed an insurance loss and received an indemnity payment of $141,186 that year. The next year, the same farmer claimed to have harvested 15,144 pounds of tobacco but was able to nearly fulfill his Philip Morris contract for 150,000 pounds. The farmer claimed an insurance loss and received an indemnity payment of $98,713. This particular farmer also was suspected of claiming losses on fields that were never planted in crops, as well as planting a crop with the intention of allowing it to fail. In one case, he claimed a loss on a field that investigators said was too steep and too shaded by forest to grow burley or anything else. If true, that’s a troubling discovery because a claims adjuster is supposed to go out to a field to determine whether a loss actually happened. This and the alleged fraud that went undetected for 20 years raise questions about oversight of the crop insurance program. It’s this kind of alleged abuse that makes honest farmers angry — and happy that the FBI, Internal Revenue Service and U.S. Department of Agriculture are looking into the situation, said Hampton “Hoppy” Henton, a Woodford County farmer and former USDA official. “There was a general ‘Hurray!’ from growers that I know” after federal authorities searched tobacco warehouses and an insurance agent’s office in Mount Sterling on Dec. 9, Henton said. “There was a clapping of hands by most every tobacco grower that I know and in my circle of friends.”