Calvin Diehl, Grain Blending Scheme, Iowa 2021

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Former Manager of Sioux Center Cooperative Sentenced to Prison in Grain Blending Scheme

A high-level manager of a Sioux Center grain cooperative who directed subordinate employees to blend oats into soybeans was sentenced to three months in federal prison.

Calvin Diehl, 60, from Aberdeen, South Dakota, received the prison term after a guilty plea to one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States on June 9, 2020.

In a plea agreement, and at guilty plea and sentencing hearings, Diehl admitted he was the Assistant General Manager at a large, federally licensed grain warehouse that is headquartered in Sioux Center but has satellite locations in the Northern District of Iowa and elsewhere.

The fraud involved blending lower value oats into soybeans and then selling the mixture as soybeans. During the fraud, the individuals involved also made false statements and executed false certificates to USDA inspectors, layered soybeans on top of oats in both storage bins and trucks to deceive USDA inspectors and customers about the quality and quantity of the grain, and made false entries and adjustments in reports provided to the grain warehouse’s bank.

Diehl was sentenced in Sioux City by United States District Court Chief Judge Leonard T. Strand. Diehl was sentenced to three months’ imprisonment and fined $7,500. He must also serve a one-year term of supervised release after the prison term.

Diehl was released on the bond previously set and is to surrender to the Bureau of Prisons on a date yet to be set.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Timothy L. Vavricek and Matthew J. Cole and investigated by the United States Department of Agriculture – Office of Inspector General, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.