Moscow Farmer Fined For Subsidy Fraud

A Moscow farmer has been ordered to pay $100,000 and placed on probation for one year for illegally taking $367,000 in federal farm subsidies.

Calvin W. Raugust, who owns farms in Garfield and Potlatch, was sentenced Monday by U.S. District Judge W. Fremming Nielsen in Spokane for defrauding federal farm programs during a seven-year period.

Raugust, who earlier this year paid $212,000 in restitution to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, also was barred from receiving farm subsidies for five years.

Raugust, 72, pleaded guilty in March to using a defunct corporation to collect government payments. He also pleaded guilty to persuading a local contractor to inflate bills for erosion control work on his farm that could then be charged to the government.

In exchange for the plea, prosecutors agreed to drop 36 additional counts.

, DataTimes