A Kentucky farmer is awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty to defrauding
the federal crop insurance program of almost $1.5 million.
Robert Thomas Hunt, of Taylor County in central Kentucky, asked g
rain haulers to sell his soybean, corn and wheat under his children’s names, to m
ake it look like his crop yields had fallen sharply from 2015 to 2021, according t
o his March 27 plea agreement.
For those seven years
, Hunt claimed heavy l
osses on his multi-peril crop insurance policy, including a high of $322,000 in 2015. The crop insurance program paid a total of $1.49 millio
n, the court documents show. All the while, his farm sold plenty of produce b
ut disguised the sales through the use of family members’ names.
“Hunt knew none of these individuals had an insurable interest in the crops sold in their names and intentionally withheld the
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se sales from the crop loss adjuster,” the plea agreement explains. “This ob
scured Hunt’s true production and resulted in inflated insurance losses.”
Hunt also used different addresses for his children to further conceal his actual grain sales.
He now faces up to 30 years in prison, forfeiture of his property, restitution to the insurance program, and a maximum fine of $1 million.
This is the latest guilty plea in multiple federal investigations into cr
op insurance fraud in Kentucky. One of the largest crimes involved a tobacco farmer, who pleaded guilty last year to more than $
9 million in crop insurance fraud. Since 2017, authorities have charged more than 30 people in the state wit
h crop insurance fraud, the Lexington Herald-Leader reported.
