A northwest Missouri Farmer is charged with eight counts of loan application fraud, US Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, Tammy Dickinson, announced Tuesday.
According to a news release, Ryan Ruckman, 60, of Albany, was indicted by a federal grand jury for a fraud scheme to receive nearly $800,000 in federal crop insurance payments to which he was not entitled.
Dickinson's office said Ruckman owned and operated farms in Gentry, Daviess, Nodaway, Worth and Harrison counties in Missouri as well as counties in southern Iowa. The indictment alleges Ruckman defrauded the government by claiming federal benefits in his son's name to receive additional payments from the USDA under the Supplemental Revenue Assistance Program, the Direct and Counter-cyclical Payment program and the Multiple Peril Crop Insurance Program.
The indictment said Ruckman's son was a full-time student at Logan University college of Chiropractic in St. Louis at the time of the alleged fraud. Ruckman allegedly placed crop ownership/production in his son's name in order to increase the number of persons eligible to receive federal benefits.
According to the release, Ruckman submitted documents to provide the appearance that his son was the producer of the crops and to hide the face that he was the actual producer of the crops from February 2007 to May 2010. The indictment shows losses incurred by the government as a result from the fraud scheme totaled approximately $795,935.
Ruckman allegedly used the proceeds of the fraud scheme to make payments on approximately $2.9 million in farm operating loans at Midstates Bank in Harlan, Iowa.
Tuesday's indictment also contained a forfeiture allegation, which would require Ruckman to forfeit any property obtained from the proceeds of the alleged fraud to the government.
Source - http://www.stjoechannel.com
