Steven McBee Sr.’s three expensive watches confiscated, accused of a crop insurance scam.
Steven McBee Sr.’s troubles increase
Steven McBee Sr., star of reality show The McBee Dynasty: Real American Cowboys, has been accused of fraud.
52-year-old McBee has been ordered to confiscate the property acquired by the accused, while his sentencing date has been postponed several times.
Three expensive watches surrendered to the government
The court directed McBee to hand over three designer watches—a Tag Heuer Formula 1, a Tag Heuer Grand Carrera and a Rolex Daytona—to the government.
These watches are being seized as “substitute assets” to partially pay the fine of crores of rupees imposed on him.
The date of sentencing kept getting postponed
McBee was initially scheduled to be sentenced in March, but it was postponed in June, then postponed to September and now shifted to October.
Earlier, he had pleaded guilty to criminal document falsification, waiving his right to a grand jury in November 2024.
In the midst of all this, he faces dangerous charges of up to 30 years in prison.
Insurance fraud worth crores
The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has accused McBee of obtaining unauthorized crop insurance money of more than $ 3 million by submitting fake documents from 2018 to 2020.
According to the DOJ, he sent fraudulent reports to the Rain & Heil company, which showed the 2018 corn production to be about 6.75 lakh bushels less and soybean yield to be 1.55 lakh bushels less.
In reality, 1.2 million bushels of corn and 4.16 lakh bushels of soybean were sold.
Court’s comment
The court issued the seizure order citing a provision of the U.S. Code that has the right to seize “property acquired directly or indirectly from crimes.”
The government also traced McBee’s other assets, which are not directly related to the charges, the documents said.
The decision made it clear that the judicial process will be completed even before formal sentencing.
Warnings and way forward
The sections of the case against the owner of McBee Farming Operations extend to 2020 – he also shared incorrect information with NAU Country Insurance.
He also manipulated the painting date along with the crop insurance premium subsidy.
Now, as the day of sentencing in October approaches, it remains to be seen what next chapter will be written in his desolate reality and bureaucratic world.