Farmer Pleads Guilty To Subsidy Fraud

A Moscow, Idaho, man has pleaded guilty to defrauding federal farm-subsidy programs for seven years.

Calvin W. Raugust, 72, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Spokane on Friday to single counts of mail fraud and making false statements in order to obtain excessive subsidy payments.

In return for the pleas, prosecutors agreed to drop 36 additional counts. Those charges included conspiracy, witness tampering, obstruction of justice, mail fraud, and making false statements to obtain excessive farm-subsidy payments.

Raugust told Judge Fremming Nielsen that he used a defunct corporation to collect about $138,000 in grain storage payments from 1984 through 1990. He also admitted to persuading a contractor to inflate bills for erosion control work on one of his farms.

Sentencing is scheduled for June. The plea agreement requires Raugust to pay a $100,000 fine and prohibits him from taking part in farm-subsidy programs for five years. He also could face up to six months in prison for each of the two counts.

The plea agreement recovers all the money Raugust fraudulently obtained, assistant U.S. attorney Frank Wilson said.

Raugust’s wife, Leona Raugust, also faces charges in the case. She also is expected to enter a plea agreement, prosecutors said.

The couple own two farms near Garfield, Wash., and Potlatch, Idaho.