WARSAW, Ind. (Inside INdiana Enterprise) — A crop insurance coverage firm based mostly in Warsaw and its chief government officer have agreed to pay $500,000 to settle allegations that they have been concerned in a federal crop insurance coverage rip-off. The U.S. Division of Justice says Silveus Insurance coverage Group Inc. and CEO James Cameron Silveus violated federal legal guidelines by facilitating the submission of fraudulent claims.
In accordance to a launch from the U.S. Legal professional’s Workplace of the Western District of Michigan, Silveus was the crop insurance coverage agent for Michigan-based crop farmer Gaylord Lincoln. The Justice Division says Silveus, on behalf of Lincoln, filed federal crop insurance coverage claims at a better stage than Lincoln was entitled.
The federal authorities says Lincoln positioned a few of his farmlands and crops below the names of farmhands who served as “straw” farming operators who answered to him. Lincoln additionally allegedly ordered the workers to fraudulently receive federal crop insurance coverage insurance policies to which they weren’t entitled.
The Justice Division says the federal authorities, by the Federal Crop Insurance coverage Corp., paid subsidy premiums and indemnities on the false insurance policies. The federal authorities says administrative prices have been paid to Silveus and the corporate.
“The federal crop insurance coverage program is designed to advertise the nationwide welfare by creating financial stability for farmers,” mentioned United States Legal professional Andrew Birge. “This method depends on producers and their insurance coverage brokers to submit truthful and full info, and my workplace is dedicated to investigating any allegations of fraud on the federal crop insurance coverage program.”
Along with the superb, the DOJ says SIG additionally agreed to enter right into a one-year monitoring interval with the U.S. Division of Agriculture’s Danger Administration Company.