Robert Harry Bickerstaff, Wire Fraud, Iowa 2023

ROCK RAPIDS, IOWA MAN PLEADS GUILTY TO WIRE FRAUD

A Lyon County man has been convicted in federal court for his role in a scheme to defraud Midwest livestock producers. Robert Harry Bickerstaff, age 52, of Rock Rapids, Iowa, pleaded guilty on December 1, 2023, to one count of wire fraud.

Bickerstaff was the regional manager of an Iowa livestock dealer from 2018 to 2021. As regional manager, he oversaw livestock buying stations in Iowa, Minnesota, and South Dakota. He admitted to participating in a scheme that involved falsely lowering the weights and reducing the numbers and classifications of swine delivered to the dealer’s buying stations.

Bickerstaff also admitted to manipulating the weights of swine to defeat electronic scales and creating fraudulent ‘sort sheets’ and scale tickets containing false numbers, classifications, and weights of producers’ swine. He even went so far as to instruct others to destroy documents with his name on them, fearing an investigation into his conduct.

Not only was Bickerstaff a regional manager, but he was also a pork producer himself. In February 2022, he won a ‘Hog Wild’ award for promoting pork in Lyon County, Iowa.

Bickerstaff faces a possible maximum sentence of 20 years’ imprisonment, a $250,000 fine, and 3 years of supervised release following any imprisonment. His sentencing will be set after a presentence report is prepared, and he remains free on bond pending sentencing.

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

For more information on this case, please visit the court file at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl. The case file number is 23-CR-2026. Follow us on Twitter @USAO_NDIA.

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