Satellite Images Used to Detect Crop Fraud

Fraud Roundup

When thinking of satellite images most think of in terms of space exploration, but not as showing up in courtrooms to help prosecutors prove crop insurance fraud. Now the Agriculture Department’s Risk Management Agency is using the technology to identify and prosecute farmers involved in crop insurance fraud.

Over eight-day intervals, satellite technology is used to monitor when a farmer plants his acreage, irrigation methods, and what crops he decides to grow. If changes or suspicious images are found in a farm’s insurance claim, investigators review satellite photos dating back years to determine cropping practices on individual fields.

The largest case of insurance fraud was in North Carolina where a tomato farmer and his wife were involved in a crop fraud scheme at the tomato growing farms of Robert and Vicki Warren. Eight people were convicted. Robert Warren was sentenced to 76 months in prison, his wife to 66 months. Satellite imaging was used during the trial, helping the agency to nail down the convictions.

Less than 100 cases have been prosecuted using satellite imaging since the agency started its congressionally mandated crackdown. Approximately 1,500 farms annually are put on a watch list for possible crop fraud. Producers are notified they are being watched and ground inspections are done on the suspect farms.

The agency’s spot checklist in the first year generated by the satellite data saved taxpayers an estimated $72.2 million in fraudulent crop insurance claims. The agency estimates it saved $81 million in 2003 and $71 million in 2004 just on those 1,500 suspect farmers singled out each year.

Ohio Man Buries Defunct BMW to Collect Insurance

Matthew Muller, 35, a resident of Akron, Ohio, was sentenced to a year in prison for insurance fraud for burying his dead BMW and collecting $20,000 for the car he reported stolen. The car had been buried by Muller in October 2002 with the help of a rented backhoe. He later filed an insurance claim, officials said.

A year after he buried the car, Muller had tried to dig it up but gave up when he found the equipment had become too encrusted in the mud, according to the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

Muller was ordered to reimburse the State Highway Patrol and Ohio Department of Transportation for the $15,500 the agencies spent to dig up the 1997 BWM with a blown engine. The car was found on Muller’s father’s property.

Despite an apology by Muller, the judge noted prior disorderly conduct and assault convictions showed “a real character flaw.”

Former South Dakota Agent Faces 60 Years in Prison for Fraud

A former South Dakota insurance agent has changed his plea in a fraud case. Ryan Wingler, 33, of Sioux Falls, is accused of taking more than $170,000 from elderly South Dakota customers between 2004 and 2005 while acting as their insurance agent, according to an Associated Press account.

Wingler was scheduled to go to trial but he decided in court to change his plea to guilty to six of the 13 charges against him.

The judge will decide later how much restitution Wingler will be required to make. A sentencing date has not been set, but he could face up to a maximum of 60 years in prison.

Topics Fraud Agribusiness Ohio