Sept. 3, 2025:
A federal judge has ordered two farmers from Sully County to pay more than $4-million ($4,019,820) “to resolve violations of the False Claims Act arising out of their 2018 and 2019 crop insurance fraud.”
The civil judgment against James Garrett and his son Levi Garrett follows the men’s Oct. 2022 criminal convictions for False Statements in Connection with Federal Crop Insurance. A jury convicted James Garrett of two counts and Levi Garrett of one count following a six-day trial. James Garrett was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison and ordered to pay $1,045,544 in restitution. Levi Garrett was sentenced to 24 months in federal prison and ordered to pay $279,396 in restitution.
According to court information, while operating a family farm and ranch in 2018, the defendants falsely certified to a crop insurance company that they planted 2,200 total acres of sunflowers. The defendants actually did not plant any sunflowers, and they wrongfully received a payment from the insurance company as if their entire crop failed. Then in 2019, James Garrett falsely certified he planted 47.5 acres of corn as part of a larger claim. No corn was actually planted, and he wrongfully received an indemnity payment from the insurance company.
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