Ag TV Star Pleads Guilty to Crop Fraud

LINCOLN, Neb. (DTN) -- The farmer star of a reality television series is facing up to 30 years in prison without parole and has been ordered to pay millions of dollars to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, after pleading guilty to crop insurance fraud.

Gallatin, Missouri, farmer Steve A. McBee, 52, on Tuesday pleaded guilty as a result of a federal investigation into a multi-million-dollar fraud scheme.

McBee, the owner of McBee Farming Operations, stars in the reality television series "The McBee Dynasty: Real American Cowboys" on Peacock, https://mcbeefarms.com/…. McBee runs the northwest Missouri farm along with his sons Steve Jr., Brayden, Cole and Jesse.

McBee waived his right to a grand jury and entered the plea as part of an agreement with federal investigators in the U.S. District Court for the District of Western Missouri.

"McBee admitted that he engaged in fraudulent activity from 2018 to 2020 that caused an economic loss to the U.S. Department of Agriculture," the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Missouri said in a statement.

McBee is required to pay about $3.2 million to the federal government. The total loss to USDA is about $4 million.

"McBee admitted that he made a false report to Rain and Hail, a company reinsured by the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation," the U.S. attorney said.

McBee submitted fraudulent documents to Rain and Hail that underreported his total 2018 corn crop by 674,812 bushels and underreported his total 2018 soybean crop by 155,833 bushels.

As a result of the false reports, McBee received about $2.6 million in insurance benefits that he was not entitled to, as well as about $553,000 in federal crop insurance premium subsidies.

"McBee admitted that his farming operation sold more than 1.2 million bushels of corn and nearly 416,000 bushels of soybeans to another party in 2018," the U.S. attorney's office said.

"However, McBee's crop insurance records reported that his farming operations produced only 340,476 bushels of corn and 190,171 bushels of soybeans."

In addition, McBee admitted he committed additional fraud in 2019 and 2020.

"McBee provided false information to Rain and Hail to obtain insurance for the McBee farming operation's 2019 soybean crop by misrepresenting that soybeans were the first crop in certain fields when wheat had already been harvested from those fields," the U.S. attorney said.

The crop insurance policy only allowed insurance coverage on the first crop planted on a piece of land during a given crop year. As a result of the double cropping during the 2019 crop year, McBee was paid federal crop insurance benefits that he was not entitled to receive.

McBee also provided false information when he obtained crop insurance through NAU Country Insurance in 2020, according to court documents.

McBee's farming operation planted corn after the last planting date in 2020, which made the crop ineligible for insurance.

"McBee provided false plant dates on crop insurance documents to NAU Country Insurance," according to the U.S. attorney's office, which led to additional crop insurance benefits he should not have received.

McBee Farming Operations did not respond to DTN's request for comment.

Todd Neeley can be reached at todd.neeley@dtn.com

Follow him on social platform X @DTNeeley

(c) Copyright 2024 DTN, LLC. All rights reserved.