La Grange man pleads guilty to crop insurance fraud

RALEIGH — A La Grange man pleaded guilty in federal court Tuesday for his role in helping Eastern North Carolina farmers commit crop insurance fraud through facilitating the sale of more than $3 million of “hidden tobacco.”

Robert Wiggins, 37, admitted before U.S. District Judge James C. Dever, III, in Raleigh, to conspiring to make false statements — a Title 18 violation in U.S. Code which carries a maximum penalty of up to five years imprisonment followed by up to three years’ supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000.

Wiggins received a charge for the offense May 25 after an investigation by the Internal Revenue Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture and Risk Management Agency determined that Wiggins worked with local farmers to make false crop insurance claims, and hide some or all of their tobacco production by selling it in nominee names to co-conspiring warehousemen — in this case, Fernan Sanchez.

During the course of the investigation, law enforcement officers discovered that Sanchez’s grocery store in Warsaw cashed $1,385,001.29, in tobacco checks brought to him by Wiggins between August and October 2007.

The checks — issued by Universal Leaf North America, a tobacco merchant and processor in Nashville, N.C. — were made payable to various nominee names.

The three agencies allege that Wiggins knowingly helped farmers collect insurance monies on false crop claims by organizing the sale of more than $3.8 million worth of hidden tobacco.

Sentencing for Wiggins has been set for Oct. 4. Assistant United States Attorney Banumathi Rangarajan represented the government.

Wesley Brown can be reached at 252-559-1075 or wbrown@freedomenc.com.