USA - Kansas farmer admits defrauding USDA crop insurance

22.10.2019 543 views
A Kansas farmer has admitted to defrauding federal government crop insurance programs before lying in court documents when filing for bankruptcy. Trego County farmer Kevin W. Struss pleaded guilty Monday at a federal courthouse in Wichita to one count of federal crop insurance fraud and one count of bankruptcy fraud, court documents show. In the plea deal, prosecutors said they plan to ask the court for more than $2.1 million in restitution. That total includes more than $600,000 in insurance premium benefits, more than $1.2 million in federal crop insurance premium subsidies and more than $270,000 in administrative costs. Struss admitted in the plea agreement that in the spring of 2015 he devised a scheme to defraud the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation. The plan involved making false proof of loss statements that under-reported his total harvested bushels of corn and grain sorghum, which is also known as milo. Those crops had been insured with an FCIC subsidy. As a result of the scheme, he was paid crop insurance benefits to which he was not entitled.
Then in April 2018, Struss filed for bankruptcy. He marked that he had not transferred property to anyone in the previous two years. In fact, Struss admitted in his guilty plea, he had transferred $470,000 to someone else within the three months before he filed for bankruptcy. Though Struss is only charged with crop insurance fraud from the 2015 reports, prosecutors alleged that his scheme to defraud the U.S. Department of Agriculture continued with false reports in 2016 and 2017. The criminal case was filed against the rural WaKeeney farmer earlier this month. That first year, in 2015, Struss allegedly under-reporting the yields of his corn crop by about 23,524 bushels and his grain sorghum crop by about 31,208 bushels. The alleged false reports resulted in Struss receiving about $201,000 in federal crop insurance benefits and about $511,000 in federal crop insurance premium subsidies that he was not entitled to. Prosecutors also say the scheme led the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation to pay additional administrative costs to ARMtech Insurance Services that would not have been paid if the reports were accurate. In 2016, prosecutors alleged, Struss under-reported his corn crop by about 116,194 bushels and sought more than $1.5 million in federal crop insurance indemnification payments to which he was not entitled. The claim was denied by Rural Community Insurance Services. Federal court records show that Struss sued Rural Community Insurance Services in April 2018 in relation to his 2016 corn crop. That case is in arbitration. In a separate case filed that same month, Struss sued the USDA, Risk Management Agency and Federal Crop Insurance Corporation, also in relation to his 2016 corn crop. A federal judge in Kansas City ruled in favor of the government agencies this summer. In 2017, prosecutors alleged, Struss under-reported his sorghum crop by about 35,530 bushels, causing Farmers Mutual Hail Insurance Company to pay him more than $108,000 in benefits to which he was not entitled. Prosecutors alleged in the bankruptcy fraud charge that Struss lied in his petition for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in April 2018 because he had wired $470,000 to Kellie Acker in the previous months. A pair of online obituaries show Acker was Struss’s sister-in-law in 2015 and was his fiance in 2018.
Source - https://www.kansas.com
07.05.2026

Moldovan May frosts caused heavy damage to fruit orchards

The first frosty nights of May have significantly worsened estimates of damage to Moldova's fruit sector from spring frosts. 

07.05.2026

India - Over 3,000 nilgai killed to curb crop damage

A total of 3,092 ghodparas (blue bull), commonly known as nilgai, have been killed in state in the financial year 2025-26 as the department of environment, forest and climate change intensified action to protect crops from animal attacks.

07.05.2026

Bangladesh - Haor flooding damages crops, hits nearly 50,000 farmers

Continuous heavy rainfall and upstream water flow have caused extensive agricultural damage across the district, affecting nearly 50,000 farmers, according to the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE).

07.05.2026

Adverse weather causes AZN 13 million damage to Azerbaijan's agriculture sector

Unfavorable weather conditions observed in Azerbaijan over recent months have caused approximately 13 million manat (about $7.65 million) in damage to the agricultural sector, Fuad Sadigov, Chairman of the Board of the Agricultural Insurance Fund, at the Insurance Umbrella of the Agricultural Sector Against Risks forum in Baku.

07.05.2026

USA - Hudson Insurance hit with bad-faith suit over halved crop payouts

Federal regulator backs growers after carrier cut tobacco loss checks in half.

07.05.2026

India - Rs 9 Crore Crop Insurance Scam Busted, Minister Halts Claims

A major alleged fraud involving crores of rupees under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana has surfaced in Rajasthan’s Hanumangarh district.

05.05.2026

Climate change: challenges and opportunities for crop insurance in Canada

The pandemic we have just come out of reminded us of the importance of maintaining robust food sovereignty in our country, provinces and cities. 

05.05.2026

Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan hold talks on agro-industrial collaboration

On May 5, Minister of Agriculture Majnun Mammadov met with a delegation from Uzbekistan led by Minister of Agriculture Ibrokhim Abdurakhmonov, who attended the 19th Azerbaijan International Agricultural Exhibition (Caspian Agro Week), to discuss bilateral cooperation in the agricultural sector, Trend reports.