A Holcomb, KS man pleaded guilty to defrauding the U.S. Department of Agriculture by falsely claiming severe weather destroyed crops that he had actually sold instead.
David L. Mongeau, 54, pleaded guilty to one count of false statements related to crop insurance and one count of bank fraud/attempted bank fraud. He owned Mongeau Enterprises, a farming operation in western Kansas. In 2019, Mongeau obtained a crop insurance policy through the USDA’s Federal Crop Insurance Program (FCIP). In January 2020, he submitted a claim indicating he lost a portion of his corn crop in Rooks County, Kansas, due to hail and excess wind. He failed to disclose having sold more than 33,000 bushels of corn to agricultural commodity traders. The sales included corn that he indicated as a loss when filing a crop insurance claim. As a result, Mongeau received an overpayment, causing $241,645 in losses for the FCIP.
He also obtained farm loans from the First National Bank of Syracuse and pledged numerous pieces of farm equipment along with crops as collateral to secure the loans. Mongeau either traded in or sold collateral and failed to notify the bank, which suffered more than $300,000 in losses.
Mongeau is scheduled to be sentenced on July 1.
