Kentucky county official pleads responsible to crop insurance coverage fraud scheme

A county official in Central Kentucky has pleaded responsible to prices associated to crop insurance coverage fraud.

Bourbon County Justice of the Peace Randall D. Taulbee confessed to 2 counts of conspiracy to commit an offense in opposition to the US throughout a listening to held in federal courtroom on Thursday.

As a part of his plea settlement, Taulbee has waived his proper to attraction any sentence that doesn’t exceed three years and 6 months in jail.

Along with the jail time period, Taulbee has agreed to pay $458,104 to a US Division of Agriculture company that gives crop insurance coverage to farmers.

He can even pay a further $260,680 to AgriSompo North America, a non-public insurance coverage firm.

Underneath the settlement, Taulbee might be collectively accountable for restitution together with James A. McDonald and Cherie Lynn Noble, who have been additionally concerned within the scheme and had beforehand pleaded responsible.

Noble is Taulbee’s sister, whereas McDonald is his brother-in-law.

Particulars of the insurance coverage fraud scheme

Taulbee, who owned and rented farmland in Bourbon and Nicholas counties that primarily cultivated tobacco and corn, was concerned in varied fraudulent actions associated to crop insurance coverage from no less than 2013 to late 2017.

In accordance with courtroom paperwork, he collaborated with McDonald and an unnamed insurance coverage agent to govern crop insurance coverage insurance policies utilizing a number of methods.

These ways included falsely reporting bigger crop acreages, submitting fabricated expense data from a farm-supply enterprise, claiming sole possession of a crop when it was shared with McDonald, withholding gross sales info that may offset loss claims, and submitting fraudulent claims.

To amplify their good points, Taulbee and McDonald additionally bought crop insurance coverage below Noble’s identify. This resulted in bigger payouts, since she was listed as a brand new producer.

A separate movement filed by the prosecutor additionally outlined an incident in April 2018 the place Taulbee purportedly impersonated his father throughout a telephone name with a federal investigator relating to the case.

The prosecutor revealed that Noble would have testified that it was her brother on the road if Taulbee had proceeded to trial.

She would have additionally testified that Taulbee had approached her in 2015 and requested her to place his crops below her identify, the prosecutor stated within the movement.

Whereas Noble initially offered false info to brokers investigating the case, she ultimately confessed that she neither owned nor rented any farmland or engaged in crop or cattle farming. McDonald was additionally anticipated to testify in opposition to Taulbee had the case gone to trial.

The fees in opposition to Taulbee, McDonald, and Noble are a part of a broader investigation into crop insurance coverage fraud in Central Kentucky, the Lexington Herald Chief reported. The prosecutor referred to the dimensions of the fraud as “staggering,” with over two dozen people having already been convicted.

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