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Iowa Man Sentenced to Federal Prison For Bank Fraud

Throne’s fraud scheme involved more than a million dollars.
Publication date: 
Monday, September 14, 2020

On September 11, 2020, an Iowa farmer was sentenced for his role in a scheme to defraud financial institutions. 

Michael Throne, age 61, from Scarville, Iowa, received the prison term after a February 12, 2020 guilty plea to one count of False Statement to a Financial Institution.

During his change of plea and sentencing hearings, it was revealed that sometime before January 2018 – and before he obtained his 2018 operating loans, Throne began stealing from, and lying to, his banks.  He began converting the property that had been pledged to the banks as collateral, and began overstating the value of the remaining collateral in order to obtain additional funds.  He even altered futures contracts to inflate his anticipated income streams.  When his scheme collapsed and was detected by the bank, he confessed his crimes to the bank.

Throne was sentenced in Sioux City by United States District Court Chief Judge Leonard T. Strand.  Throne was sentenced to 24 months’ imprisonment.  He was ordered to make $1,474,964.61 in restitution to the First State Bank of Kiester and $625,445.48 in restitution to the Farm Service Agency (FSA).   He must also serve a two-year term of supervised release after the prison term.  There is no parole in the federal system.

Throne was released on the bond previously set and is to surrender to the Bureau of Prison on a date yet to be set.

The case was investigated by the USDA, Office of Inspector General and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Forde Fairchild, Ajay Alexander, Matt Cole, and Marty McLaughlin. 

Court file information at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl

The case file number is 20-3003.

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Additional Details
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Component
USAO - Iowa, Northern;
OIG
Department of Agriculture OIG