In an attempt to defraud the Federal Crop Insurance Corp of more than $9 million, a farmer and his wife filed fake crop damage reports claiming losses that never happened. The farmer incidently was Robert Warren and his wife Vicki Warren, owners of R&V Warren Farms, once one of the largest tomato-growing farms in the eastern U.S.
The fraud: First, they photographed their fake crop damage to help document their insurance claims. Second, they falsified their data to indicate a history of high tomato production from their farms. (Either one of these is easy for the Insurance Company to verify, especially with $9 million on the line).
How did they "fake crop damage"?: In one instance, employees threw ice cubes onto a tomato field, beat the plants with sticks and photographed the results in an attempt to simulate damage from a hail storm to back up an insurance claim.
The couple was ordered to forfeit $7.3 million in assets and pay $9.15 million in restitution to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
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