Satellite Images Used to Detect Crop Fraud

Satellite Images Used to Detect Crop Fraud
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.

Topics Fraud Agribusiness