Three more sentenced in crop insurance scheme [The Wilson Daily Times, N.C.]

Jan. 21--Three men were sentenced to five years of probation for roles in a large crop insurance fraud scheme.

William Earl Dawson and his son, Robert Lemuel Dawson, both of Stantonsburg, pleaded guilty to conspiring to make false statements. William Dawson was ordered to pay a fine of $10,000, and Robert Dawson was ordered to pay a fine of $5,000. In addition, both were instructed to pay joint restitution of $99,458.

A third defendant, Snow Hill resident David C. Harrison, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to launder money. He received five years probation and was ordered to pay a fine of $24,280.

The men were sentenced Jan. 15 in U.S. District Court by Judge James C. Dever III.

All three men cooperated with federal authorities during the investigation. Therefore, they did not receive active prison sentences, according to a press release from U.S. Attorney George Holding.

Harrison, the Dawsons, along with co-conspirators, Kenneth Gene Kelly and Robert Carl Stokes, participated in a scheme to defraud crop insurance companies of money and to launder the funds in an effort to cover their illegal activity.

"Harrison and both Dawsons worked with Wilson, North Carolina tobacco broker Kenneth Gene Kelly, to sell their tobacco in nominee names to obscure the farmer's true tobacco production," the press release said.

In October, Stokes and Mark Davis Pridgen pleaded guilty to conspiring to make false statements, making material false statements, committing mail fraud, committing wire fraud, conspiring to launder money and laundering money.

Stokes and Pridgen have not been sentenced.

"I'm as guilty as can be," Stokes said in federal court during his plea.

Stokes was the owner and operator of The Hallmart Agency which sold both private and federal crop insurance polices, according to the U. S. Dept. of Justice. From 2003 to 2006, Stokes recruited local farmers to defraud various crop insurance companies by making fake or falsified claims.

The claims were made to ARMtech Insurance Services and Rural Community Insurance Services. Stokes and the other defendants would claim they had suffered crop losses then hide their tobacco production by using false names. The farmer would profit twice by selling the tobacco allotments and then receiving the proceeds from falsified crop insurance claims.

Stokes would receive payment from the falsified claims as payment for his involvement.

According to the plea, Stokes will forfeit $56,000 in cash seized in November 2006 when a search warrant was executed. He will also forfeit his interest in real estate which include his home on Brookside Drive, the insurance business located on Airport Boulevard, his beach house on Moonlight Drive in Atlantic Beach and two other residences on Aycock Street in Black Creek. He will also forfeit a Ford vehicle and accounts receivable that total more than $260,306.61.

Other defendants who have already pleaded guilty in this investigation include Kelly, Roland McCoy Jr., Joseph Edward Williams of Zebulon, Robert Veasey of Durham, Travis E. Wilson of Cove City and Dennis Hawley of Wilson.

gina@wilsontimes.com -- 265-7821

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