Steven “Steve” McBee Sr. has lastly been sentenced for his half in a multimillion-dollar crop fraud rip-off after pleading responsible in 2024.
McBee, 52, was sentenced to 24 months in jail on Thursday, October 16, after his earlier hearings have been pushed again 4 separate occasions.
U.S. District Court docket Choose Stephen R. Bough ordered McBee to 2 years in jail and a further two years on supervised launch, based on courtroom paperwork obtained by Us.
The previous McBee Farm & Cattle CEO will even need to pay $4,022,124 in restitution for his crimes. In accordance with the submitting, McBee should self-surrender earlier than 2 p.m. on Monday, December 1.
McBee gained public consideration in early 2024 when he and his household made their actuality TV debut on The McBee Dynasty: Actual American Cowboys. The primary season adopted Steve and his 4 sons, Steven McBee Jr., Jesse McBee, Cole McBee and Brayden McBee, as they ran their farm and cattle firm in Gallatin, Missouri.
Whereas the present was stuffed with twists and turns, together with Steve's romance along with his firm's CFO Galyna Saltkovska — whom he had an affair with whereas married to his sons' mom, Kristi McBee — it wasn't till after the cameras stopped rolling that he discovered himself in actual bother.
The U.S. Lawyer's Workplace Western District of Missouri introduced in a November 2024 press launch that Steve had been charged with one rely of federal crop insurance coverage fraud following an FBI investigation into his dealings in 2018, 2019 and 2020.
Steve was accused of creating a false report back to his 2018 insurance coverage supplier, Rain and Hill, underreporting his “corn crop by roughly 674,812 bushels” and “his complete 2018 soybean crop by roughly 155,833 bushels,” per the DOJ.
He additionally allegedly acquired greater than $2.6 million in federal crop insurance coverage advantages plus a further $552,000 in federal crop insurance coverage premium subsidies following the false report.
The DOJ claimed that Steve additionally dedicated fraud in 2019 and 2020, which consisted of allegedly misrepresenting that his soybean crops have been “the primary crop in sure fields” in 2019 whereas utilizing the identical land to develop wheat. The federal government defined that by allegedly double cropping, Steve was “not entitled” to the insurance coverage declare he later filed.
In 2020, Steve allegedly gave NAU Nation Insurance coverage “false plant dates” to fraudulently acquire a brand new insurance coverage coverage after planting corn previous the final planting date that 12 months.
Steve, for his half, pleaded responsible in November 2024. He confessed that his farm offered “greater than 1.2 million bushels of corn and practically 416,000 bushels of soybeans” to a different get together in 2018, based on the DOJ press launch.
He proceeded to signal a plea deal the place Steve agreed to pay restitution after the federal government reportedly misplaced greater than $4 million by the hands of Steve.
Steve's plea served as an act of contrition that he “engaged in fraudulent exercise from 2018 to 2020 that prompted an financial loss to the U.S. Division of Agriculture,” the press launch added.
Steve was initially set to be sentenced in March, nevertheless it was modified a number of occasions earlier than touchdown on Thursday's date. Following his fourth resentencing delay in September, Steve was ordered to relinquish three of his designer watches.
Individuals reported final month that the watches — a Tag Heuer Formulation 1 watch, a Tag Heuer Grand Carrera watch and a Rolex Daytona watch — have been thought of “substitute property in partial satisfaction of the cash judgement” that Steve nonetheless owes.
The courtroom order cited a U.S. code that permits them to hunt forfeiture “of all property, actual and private, constituting, or derived from, proceeds traceable to the offenses, immediately or not directly, because of the violations alleged.” The submitting defined that “The USA has positioned property belonging to the defendant Steve A. McBee that weren't immediately obtained by way of the offenses alleged within the Info.”
The McBee Dynasty's Steven “Steve” McBee Sr. took a step again from the Bravo collection throughout season 2, later revealing his FBI investigation was in charge. In consequence, his sons, Steven McBee Jr., Jesse McBee, Cole McBee and Brayden McBee, took over his duties on their household farm in Missouri and in addition helmed their […]
Forward of sentencing, McBee Dynasty followers watched as Steve's sons discovered of his FBI investigation throughout season 2 of the Bravo collection.
“We've leaned into household. We take it day-to-day,” Steven, who took over as CEO of the farm amid his dad's authorized woes, solely instructed Us Weekly in July of the household's mindset pre-sentencing. “The state of affairs remains to be ongoing. We're hoping to have it wrapped up and have some finality to it earlier than the top of the 12 months. That's the purpose, simply so we will transfer on and say, ‘OK, we've acquired this discovered. We are able to begin life once more now.'”
