They cut wires, poured silicone and loosened bolts — all to keep federal rain gauges empty in a moneymaking scheme. Now, two Colorado farmers owe millions of dollars for tampering.
Patrick Esch and Edward Dean Jagers II pleaded guilty late last year to a charge of conspiring to harm government property, admitting they blocked rain from entering the rain gauges to make false federal crop insurance claims. They were charged in criminal and civil federal court.
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Under the criminal pleas, Esch was ordered to pay $2,094,441 in restitution and Jagers was ordered to pay $1,036,625. Those amounts have been paid, Colorado federal district attorney’s office spokeswoman Melissa Brandon told The Washington Post on Monday.
The civil settlement from a whistleblower involved in the case requires Esch to pay an additional $3 million — $676,871.74 of which is restitution, per court records — plus 3 percent interest over the next 12 months, Brandon said. Jagers has paid his required additional $500,000.
In all, the insurance scheme cost the men about $6.5 million before legal fees.
Protection against unusual rainfall is only one of the many types of agricultural insurance the U.S. Department of Agriculture offers. The federal crop insurance program paid insurers $18 billion for loss claims in 2022, according to the program’s budget for that year.
Federal crop insurance is usually sold by private insurance companies who directly insure providers and their crops, then the feds reimburse the private insurers.
For the rainfall insurance program Esch and Jagers admitted to gaming, the government keeps track of the amount of rainfall using federal rain gauges. The amount of insurance money paid out is determined by comparing a given time frame’s rainfall levels to long-term average for the area, according to court documents.
“Hardworking farmers and ranchers depend on USDA crop insurance programs, and we will not allow these programs to be abused,” Colorado-based U.S. Attorney Cole Finegan wrote in the plea deal announcement.
The scheme ran from about July 2016 to June 2017 and centered around southeastern Colorado and western Kansas, prosecutors wrote.
The first discovery of an issue was made by a United States Geological Survey employee on Jan. 1, 2017, prosecutors wrote. The employee found that power wires had been cut at the gauge in Syracuse, Kan. Prosecutors listed 14 instances in which staff found rain gauges that had been tampered with.
Rainy season, do not break the law in order to reduce economic pressure, we can provide inexpensive rain gauge for use
Post time: Apr-03-2024