A. COURTNEY COX, UNITED STATES ATTORNEY

Nine Executive Drive, Fairview Heights, Illinois 62208, Telephone (618) 628-3700

For Immediate Release May 18, 2009

LOUISVILLE MAN PLEADS GUILTY TO DEFRAUDING EMPLOYER AND INVESTORS OUT OF MORE THAN $7.5 MILLION DOLLARS

A. Courtney Cox, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Illinois, announced today that ERIC L. LEWIS, age 33, of Louisville, Illinois pled guilty in United States District Court for the Southern District of Illinois, in conjunction with a scheme relating to the sale of corn and soybean seeds in Clay County, Illinois.

LEWIS waived his right to be indicted by a grand jury, and entered a plea of guilty to a two-count information alleging mail fraud and money laundering. The charges allege that LEWIS misused his position as a District Sales Manager with Crow’s Hybrid Corn Company to engage in a series of transactions that were intended to benefit and enrich himself in violation of Crow’s established policies and procedures beginning on or about July 15, 2002, and continuing through August 20, 2007.

As part of the plea, LEWIS admitted that he secretly entered into seed contracts with investors, where he manipulated sales prices in order to make a profit from the sale of the seed and to increase sales volume thereby increasing his commissions and performance bonuses. LEWIS concealed the price manipulation by fraudulently endorsing and depositing $14,520,301.36 in seed payment checks into two bank accounts that he controlled. LEWIS then engaged in a Ponzi scheme where he misrepresented the source of payments to Crow’s by applying payments from new orders to bring older accounts current. This practice defrauded Crow’s out of $4,247,391.00 in seed that was shipped to customers but was never paid for because of the price manipulation inherent in the transactions. The scheme also resulted in investors losing in excess of $3,339,600.00 that was invested in corn and soybean seed but was misapplied to other customer accounts to conceal the scheme to defraud. LEWIS also misapplied approximately $229,000 of seed payment money to pay for the construction of his personal residence in Louisville, Illinois.

The crime of mail fraud carries a maximum possible penalty of 20 years' imprisonment or a $250,000 fine, or both, and not more than 3 years' supervised release. The crime of money laundering carries a maximum possible penalty of 10 years' imprisonment or a $250,000 fine, or both, and not more than 3 years' supervised release. LEWIS will be sentenced in United States District Court on August 17, 2009 in Benton, Illinois.

The investigation was conducted by the Internal Revenue Service/Criminal Investigations and the United States Postal Inspection Service. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Steve Weinhoeft.