Lake City Farmer Sentenced to More Than a Year in Federal Prison After Pleading Guilty to Three Felony Offenses

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa, Feb. 9 -- The Office of the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Iowa issued the following news release:

A man who farmed land in north central Iowa and made false statements to a bank and to the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation and committed bankruptcy fraud was sentenced on February 7, 2018, to more than a year in federal prison.

Clint Devries, age 36, from Lake City, Iowa, received the prison term after a September 26, 2017, guilty plea to two counts of making false statements to influence financial institutions and one count of bankruptcy fraud.

In a plea agreement, Devries admitted that, in 2013, 2014, and 2015, he lied to a bank about the amount of crops he had in storage and the value of other property he was using for collateral in order to obtain farm operating loans from the bank. Devries ended up defaulting on more than $400,000 in farm loans he received from the bank. Devries also admitted he lied to the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation from 2012 to 2015. Devries falsely understated the amount of crops he produced each year in order to obtain crop insurance proceeds to which he was not entitled. During those years, defendant received more than $450,000 in crop insurance proceeds than he would have received but for his lies. Finally, Devries admitted that, after filing for bankruptcy in October 2015, he lied to the bankruptcy case trustee regarding having sold some of his crops.

Devries was sentenced in Sioux City by Chief United States District Court Judge Leonard T. Strand. Devries was sentenced to 18 months' imprisonment.

A special assessment of $300 was imposed, and he was ordered to make $1,190,696.12 in restitution to the victims of his false statements. He must also serve a 3-year term of supervised release after the prison term. There is no parole in the federal system.

Devries was released on the bond previously set and is to surrender to the United States Marsha; on a date yet to be set.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Anthony Morfitt. The case was investigated by the United States Department of Agriculture - Office of the Inspector General and the Federal Bureau of Investigation with assistance from the Office of the United States Trustee in the Northern District of Iowa.

Court file information at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl. The case file number is 17-cr-3041.