Kentucky farmer pleads guilty in fraud conspiracy, agrees to pay government $1.9 million

A Kentucky farmer who lied about crop losses to get insurance payouts has agreed to make restitution of $1.9 million to the federal government.

David Wisdom pleaded guilty Feb. 28 in federal court to a charge of conspiracy to commit fraud involving crop insurance.

Wisdom, of Barren County, owned and rented farm land in Barren and Metcalfe counties and grew crops that included tobacco, according to his plea agreement.

Wisdom admitted that over several crop years, he wrote checks showing he bought tobacco from Farmers Tobacco Warehouse, creating the impression his crops had been short and he needed to buy tobacco to fulfill his contract.

Wisdom used the checks to support claims for insurance payments by making it appear he had grown less tobacco than he actually had.

In reality, the warehouse paid him back for those check, though it kept a cut in some cases, according to his plea agreement.

Wisdom also wrote checks to other farmers from 2015 through 2020 to make it appear he had bought tobacco from them, according to the plea.

The court document did not identify the other farmers.

Wisdom also admitted reporting tobacco production on the wrong farms to support claims that his crops were short.

The indictment against Wisdom charged that he sold tobacco on other farmers’ contracts, or in the names of other people, to hide how much tobacco he actually produced.

Wisdom faces up to five years in prison. U.S. District Judge Danny C. Reeves scheduled sentencing for June 16.

The restitution Wisdom owes would go to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which underwrites crop insurance.

Federal authorities have obtained convictions against more than two dozen people in Kentucky in recent years in an investigation of what one prosecutor called a “staggering” level of fraud in crop insurance.

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