Steve A. McBee, a reality TV personality featured in Peacock's “The McBee Dynasty: Real American Cowboys,” pleaded guilty to one count of federal crop insurance fraud in connection with a scheme that generated $4.02 million in unwarranted benefits from 2018 to 2020.
The US Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Missouri said that McBee (pictured above) would forfeit $3.16 million to the government. Additional restitution will be determined by the court at a later date.
According to a report from AM Best, McBee underreported his 2018 corn crop by approximately 674,812 bushels and his soybean crop by around 155,833 bushels. These falsified figures led to $2.61 million in federal crop insurance benefits and $552,980 in federal crop increase premium subsidies.
Crop insurance records showed that McBee reported producing 340,476 bushels of corn and 190,171 bushels of soybeans in 2018. However, he told another party that his corn sales totaled 1.2 million bushels and soybean sales reached nearly 416,000 bushels.
The false claims for 2018 were submitted to Rain and Hail, a subsidiary of Chubb Ltd, which is reinsured by the Federal Crop Insurance Corp.
McBee also admitted to engaging in additional fraudulent activities in 2019 and 2020.
In 2019, McBee misrepresented planting dates for his soybean crop to Rain and Hail, as the insurance policy only covered the first crop planted on a particular piece of land during the crop year.
The following year, McBee planted corn after the last eligible planting date, making the crop ineligible for insurance. To bypass this restriction, he provided NAU Country Insurance with false planting dates.
In both years, McBee received unwarranted crop insurance benefits due to these falsifications, according to the US Attorney’s Office.
McBee faces a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison without parole. His sentencing hearing is scheduled for March 13, 2025.
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