U.S. alleges farmer defrauded federal insurance program

SPOKANE — The United States has filed a civil enforcement action against an Eastern Washington farmer alleging a multi-year scheme to defraud the federally backed crop insurance program.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Washington in a press release Tuesday, Sept. 28, announced filing the complaint against Rick T. Gray and one of his companies, Gray Farms & Cattle Co. LLC, of Prosser, in U.S. District Court. According to the press release, “Gray made tens of thousands of dollars through hidden and undisclosed wheat sales while falsely claiming a wheat production loss thereby obtaining over $500,000 in crop insurance loss indemnity payments, all of which were fully backed by the United States Department of Agriculture through the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation.”

The insurance program helps farmers nationwide.

According, to the complaint, Gray in 2015 concealed more than half of the wheat production of companies he owned and/or controlled by falsely claiming to crop insurance loss adjusters that those companies sold approximately 21,000 bushels of wheat for approximately $130,000, when in actuality his companies sold more than 35,000 bushels of wheat for about $184,000 more in hidden and undisclosed wheat sales.

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The complaint also alleges Gray was attempting to execute the same scheme in 2016, but loss adjusters and the USDA discovered the ploy before he again could obtain phony crop insurance loss payments.

Assistant U.S attorneys Tyler Tornabene and Dan Fruchter are handling the case with analytical and investigative support from the USDA’s Office of Inspector General and Risk Management Agency.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office also stated the claims in the complaint are only allegations at this time.