The sixth and final defendant indicted in a farm program fraud scheme that rerouted more than $11.5 million intended to benefit farmers who had been discriminated against pleaded guilty Thursday in federal court to conspiracy to commit mail fraud.

Everett Martindale, 75, a Little Rock attorney, pleaded guilty Thursday to the count contained in a superseding information as part of a plea agreement with federal prosecutors in which the U.S. agreed to seek no more than two years' prison time and allow Martindale to ask for probation in addition to dismissing the indictment against him.

In 1997, a group of Black farmers filed a class-action lawsuit alleging they had been discriminated against when they applied for farm credit, credit servicing or farm benefits from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. A similar lawsuit alleged that Hispanic and female farmers also experienced discrimination in USDA farm benefit programs.

Both lawsuits were settled and resulted in a claims process where farmers could make claims for financial relief by showing they had applied for participation in a USDA benefit program and had been denied. Successful claims resulted in an award of $62,500. Of that, $50,000 would be made payable to the claimant, and $12,500 would be transferred directly to the IRS as a tax withholding.

In court on Thursday, Martindale admitted to signing off on the claim forms without knowing whether the forms were legitimately investigated, admitting that he did not...

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