LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) - A Kentucky woman has been sentenced to five years in prison and ordered to pay $1.6 million in restitution for crop insurance fraud.
The U.S. attorney's office in Lexington said 63-year-old Debra Muse of the Wallingford community in Fleming County was sentenced Tuesday in U.S. District Court.
Muse pleaded guilty in April, admitting she helped farmers file false tobacco crop insurance claims and created false documents to help farmers hide their crop production. The U.S. attorney's office said in a news release that the documents led to inflated payments from crop insurers, which are reinsured by the federal government.
Judge Joseph M. Hood found that Muse caused the federal government to pay out $5.9 million in indemnity payments to producers who weren't entitled to them.
