Convicted in previous fraud case, area farmer pleads guilty to crop insurance fraud

A farmer based in Simpson County has admitted to receiving fraudulent crop insurance claims from the federal government, resulting in millions of dollars in losses.

David Manion pleaded guilty on Tuesday in U.S. District Court to a count of federal crop insurance fraud, the second time within a decade he has been convicted of that charge.

According to federal court records, Manion was charged in November with knowingly making false statements and reports on applications for crop insurance between Aug. 2, 2016, and July 13, 2022, in Simpson County.

Manion had previously pleaded guilty in federal court in 2016 to aiding and abetting in crop insurance fraud, receiving a sentence of one day in custody and ordered to pay a $250,000 fine and $1,133,498 in restitution.

The charge to which Manion pleaded guilty eight years ago stemmed from allegations that he intentionally overstated damage to his tobacco crops in Allen, Simpson and Warren counties in insurance claims from 2009-12.

As part of the plea agreement in the 2016 case, Manion agreed to a five-year voluntary exclusion from U.S. Department of Agriculture farm programs, including the crop insurance program.

While charges were pending in that case, however, Manion's family members applied for crop insurance in their own names beginning in February 2016, and claimed 100% insurable interest on crops and land farmed by Manion, who ultimately received the benefit of those claims, resulting in the current case against him, court records show.

According to a plea agreement in the current case, this conduct resulted in a loss to the Federal Crop Insurance Corp. of $3.5 million.

Under the terms of this plea agreement, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Kentucky will recommend an unspecified term of imprisonment and call for Manion to pay $3.5 million in restitution, along with an additional $5,498,023 before his sentencing date to the Federal Crop Insurance Corp. to resolve other disputes.

David Manion is scheduled to be sentenced on May 1.

In a related matter, Manion's daughter, Leann Elizabeth Manion Bergdorff, had already pleaded guilty to making false statements during an interview conducted by special agents of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Office of Inspector General and the Risk Management Agency in 2021 in Macon County, Tennessee, during which she falsely claimed she was actively involved in the farming of all crops insured in her name.

Those agencies began investigating crop insurance claims filed by Bergdorff in late 2020.

"The identity of the person farming the land, and the beneficiary of crop insurance proceeds, was material to the investigation," Bergdorff's plea agreement said.

Bergdorff awaits sentencing, when federal prosecutors will seek to have her placed on probation for two years and pay a $4,000 fine.