A farmer who got a government loan on his corn crop and then sold the corn without repaying the loan was sentenced July 12, 2011, to 6 months in federal prison.

Chris Wessels, age 49, of Earlville, Iowa, received the sentence after a January 28, 2011, guilty plea 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.

Wessels was sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Chief Judge Linda R. Reade. Wessels was sentenced to 6 months’ imprisonment and fined $10,000. There is no parole in the federal system.

Wessels was released on the bond previously set and is to surrender to the Bureau of Prisons on a date yet to be set.

This case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Mark Tremmel and was investigated by 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 CR 10-2057.

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