Keith Foley, Crop Insurance Fraud, Kentucky 2019

A Paris, Kentucky man has pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit crop insurance fraud, admitting to a scheme that caused $480,000 in losses to the federal government and private insurance companies.

Keith A. Foley, 49, pleaded guilty on October 21, 2019 to conspiring to violate the laws of the United States before U.S. District Court Senior Judge Joseph M. Hood.

Foley, an agricultural producer of tobacco in Bourbon and Jessamine Counties, admitted that from approximately 2011 through 2016, he agreed with others to commit crop insurance fraud.

In these years, Foley took out Multi-Peril Crop Insurance to cover his tobacco crops, an insurance program funded by the federal government through the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation but administered through private insurance providers.

Foley admitted that he hid his crop production from the insurance companies, in order to claim that his crop suffered enough damage to trigger federal crop insurance indemnity payments.

Foley also had private insurance policies (called crop-hail policies) covering his tobacco crop. In crop years 2012, 2014, and 2015, Foley admitted to entering into an agreement with his crop adjusters and insurance agent at the time, in order to defraud his insurance companies.

According to the plea agreement, Foley's conduct caused a loss of approximately $480,000 to the federal government and private insurance companies. Foley is scheduled to be sentenced on October 21, 2019, and faces up to 5 years in prison and a maximum fine of $250,000 or twice the amount of loss.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/usao-edky/pr/paris-man-pleads-guilty-conspiring-commit-crop-insurance-fraud