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Colorado ranchers sentenced after tampering with rain gauges to increase crop subsidies
Posted on 3/10/24 at 7:56 pm
Posted on 3/10/24 at 7:56 pm
CBS News
Shenanigans abound with this lot. It would probably make a decent movie. Maybe have a couple of fun montages of these bumbling assholes doing all the rain gauge mods, sneaking around fields like a bunch of weasels.
quote:
Two southeastern Colorado ranch owners were recently sentenced to pay $6.6 million to resolve federal charges that they damaged or altered rain gauges in an effort to get paid for worsening drought conditions.
By preventing the rain gauges from accurately measuring precipitation, the men aimed to increase the amount of money they could receive from the federal government, according to court documents.
Patrick Esch, 72, and Ed Dean Jagers, 62, both of Springfield, received short prison sentences - Esch two months and Jagers six. They also were ordered to pay a combined $3.1 million in restitution - the estimated amount of fraudulently inflated funds they received from the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation. As well, they agreed to pay a combined $3.5 million to settle the allegations.
quote:
The Jager and Esch plea agreements describe two other people who were involved in the conspiracy. Those two people were not identified.
quote:
The group allegedly damaged rain gauges located in Springfield, Ordway, La Junta, Walsh, and Ellicott, Colorado, and others in Syracuse, Coolidge, and Elkhart, Kansas. Wires were cut, funnels to rain collectors were filled with silicone, holes drilled or punched in collectors, parts of collectors were disassembled, and objects such as cake pans or pie tins were placed over the gauges during rainstorms. The incidents occurred between July 2016 and June 2017.
quote:
The scheme was designed to benefit Jagers through his crop insurance, the Rainfall Index Annual Forage Insurance Plan, which is one of several agriculture subsidies administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Federal Crop Insurance Program.
Federal crop insurance is typically sold through private insurance companies who are subsequently reimbursed by the federal government. The Rainfall Index plan covers annual crops and "is focused on the amount of precipitation, not on actual crop production," as described by prosecutors in a case document. "This means that a farmer can receive a payment when precipitation is below the historical normal level even if the relevant farmland suffers no loss in productivity
Jager filed claims on the falsified lower precipitation measurements, thereby increasing the benefits received from his crop insurance policy. In return for their rain gauge activities, Esch and the two unidentified co-conspirators received payouts, as outlined in the plea agreements.
quote:
Incidentally, one of the co-conspirators turned on the group and extorted Esch in particular. The unidentified male threatened to expose the entire enterprise to authorities in exchange for Esch paying the man's bond for release from jail and giving several five-figure payments to the man's girlfriend. Esch, according to his plea agreement, even shrugged off the man's admitted theft of an all-terrain vehicle from Esch in exchange for the man's silence.
quote:
In August of 2023, a month before Jager and Esch reached their plea agreements with prosecutors, this unidentified male co-conspirator escaped from prison. This triggered a nationwide manhunt and caused Esch and his family "to go into hiding," as stated in a court document. Two weeks after the escape, the co-conspirator was found dead.
Shenanigans abound with this lot. It would probably make a decent movie. Maybe have a couple of fun montages of these bumbling assholes doing all the rain gauge mods, sneaking around fields like a bunch of weasels.
Posted on 3/10/24 at 8:05 pm to LegendInMyMind
Netflix better have people on this right now.
Posted on 3/10/24 at 8:10 pm to LegendInMyMind
Seems like an easy thing to get caught on, like your gauges aren't the only thing measuring the rain in that area.
Posted on 3/10/24 at 8:11 pm to medium rare
LSU replaced climatologist because of drought reporting
North La farmers didn’t agree with him
North La farmers didn’t agree with him
Posted on 3/10/24 at 8:13 pm to LegendInMyMind
Literally man made climate change.
Posted on 3/10/24 at 8:13 pm to medium rare
quote:
Seems like an easy thing to get caught on, like your gauges aren't the only thing measuring the rain in that area.
It sounds like they hit every NWS/NOAA gauge in their region, and knowing how slowly they actually fix weather stations that have problems the faulty readings probably lasted a while.
This post was edited on 3/10/24 at 8:14 pm
Posted on 3/10/24 at 8:13 pm to medium rare
quote:
Seems like an easy thing to get caught on, like your gauges aren't the only thing measuring the rain in that area.
Yup. idiots lol
Posted on 3/10/24 at 8:13 pm to LegendInMyMind
Whew that’s a crazy story. New scam learned every day Who knew there was fraud in ranching.
Had they been smarter about it, it could’ve been more successful. They got lazy and didn’t hide it well. Glad they got caught. Pretty smart cops on this one.
Had they been smarter about it, it could’ve been more successful. They got lazy and didn’t hide it well. Glad they got caught. Pretty smart cops on this one.
Posted on 3/10/24 at 8:17 pm to LegendInMyMind
Try that in a small town!
Posted on 3/10/24 at 8:20 pm to LegendInMyMind
More proof farmers are the biggest welfare queens
Posted on 3/10/24 at 9:14 pm to deeprig9
quote:
Netflix better have people on this right now.
Would they cast blacks for this?
Posted on 3/10/24 at 9:17 pm to LegendInMyMind
It be like that sometimes
Posted on 3/10/24 at 9:21 pm to nicholastiger
quote:
LSU replaced climatologist because of drought reporting North La farmers didn’t agree with him
We did the same thing to Ivor.
Posted on 3/10/24 at 9:29 pm to LegendInMyMind
What confuses me is this. Shouldn’t crop insurance be determined on the outcome of said crop? If the drought wasn’t as bad as they tried to make it appear, their crops would have been decent.
So were they actually having a drought, and these guys destroyed rain gauges in an attempt to make it seem like the drought was worse than it actually was?
My point being, if they were not really in a drought, did they somehow purposefully destroy their crops and destroyed the rain gauges to get rid of the evidence that there was not a drought?
So were they actually having a drought, and these guys destroyed rain gauges in an attempt to make it seem like the drought was worse than it actually was?
My point being, if they were not really in a drought, did they somehow purposefully destroy their crops and destroyed the rain gauges to get rid of the evidence that there was not a drought?
Posted on 3/10/24 at 9:32 pm to LegendInMyMind
That will get ya every time.
I know we are plenty pissed tons of tax dollars are being used on illegals but it’s only a fraction currently for what was stolen from the government fraudulently during the pandemic.
I know we are plenty pissed tons of tax dollars are being used on illegals but it’s only a fraction currently for what was stolen from the government fraudulently during the pandemic.
This post was edited on 3/10/24 at 9:40 pm
Posted on 3/10/24 at 9:54 pm to bhtigerfan
quote:
Shouldn’t crop insurance be determined on the outcome of said crop?
Paragraph 7 explains this.
Posted on 3/10/24 at 10:26 pm to WestSideTiger
quote:Ah, got it thanks.
Paragraph 7 explains this.
That’s fricking stupid.
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