Danbury farmer pleads guilty of $1.5 million theft of subsidies

SIOUX CITY -- A Danbury, Iowa, farmer has pleaded guilty of stealing more than $1.5 million in ag subsidies during the COVID pandemic.

Tanner Seuntjens, 32, entered his plea Friday in U.S. District Court in Sioux City to single counts of theft of government funds, aggravated identity theft and crop insurance fraud. He also pleaded guilty to stalking in a separate case.

He faces a mandatory minimum of three years in prison and could receive up to 42 years in prison. Sentencing will be scheduled at a later date.

In a plea agreement, Seuntjens admitted that between June 2020 and June 2021, he provided false information about his eligibility in order to obtain thousands of dollars from the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program, a federal program that provided payments to crop and livestock producers who faced price declines and additional marketing costs due to COVID-19. He filed applications in three Iowa counties in his name and the names of another person and a limited liability company that each falsely claimed the ownership of thousands of head of hogs.

He also defrauded a South Dakota bank from March 2021 through April 2022 by forging a bank official's signature on two-party checks issued to him for grain and livestock sales on at least two occasions in order to deposit the checks into his account at another bank and used the $400,000 on farming expenditures and vacations to Cocoa Beach and Disney World as well as large cash withdrawals.

Seuntjens admitted he committed crop insurance fraud in 2022 and 2023 by repeatedly underreporting his crop yields during the 2022 and 2023 crop seasons, thereby receiving crop insurance funds to which he was not entitled.

He also admitted to stalking another person who was a victim and witness in the federal case.

Seuntjens was indicted in April on 30 counts of theft and fraud. The remainder of them will be dismissed.