earlville farmer convicted for stealing sealed corn
Contact: Peter Deegan
A farmer who got a government loan on his corn crop and then sold the corn without repaying the loan pled guilty today in federal court in Cedar Rapids.
Chris Wessels, age 49, from Earlville, Iowa, pled guilty to one count of stealing corn mortgaged to the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC).
In 2007, Wessels obtained a $61,440 nine-month farm storage loan from the Commodity Credit Corporation and secured the loan through the mortgage of 32,000 bushels of 2007 corn as collateral. Wessels was to store the corn on his rural Earlville farm, and he knew the corn could not be moved or disposed of without prior approval from the CCC. In October 2008, the CCC issued a demand letter to deliver the corn because the loan repayment was overdue. A spot check was done that day on the bin where the corn was supposed to be stored, and it was discovered the corn was gone. Wessels had sold the corn without permission and used the money to pay other bills.
Sentencing before United States District Court Chief Judge Linda R. Reade will be set after a presentence report is prepared. Wessels remains free on bond previously set pending sentencing. Wessels faces a possible maximum sentence of 5 years’ imprisonment, a $250,000 fine, a $100 special assessment, and 3 years of supervised release following any imprisonment.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Bob Teig and was investigated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Office of Inspector General.
Court file information is available at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl. The case file number is 10-2057.
