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Hillsborough Farmers Charged With Crop Insurance Fraud

Tribune file photo by LOIS KINDLE (2007)

Federal prosecutors have accused Goodson Farms in Balm of crop insurance fraud.

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By ELAINE SILVESTRINI | The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 30, 2008

Updated: 10/30/2008 03:55 pm

TAMPA - The owners of two Hillsborough County strawberry and pepper farms have agreed to plead guilty to federal crop insurance fraud charges.

Goodson Farms in Balm and D&K Farms in Plant City were named in charges filed in U.S. District Court this morning. Also, D&K Farms owners Darryl and William Keith Williams face charges of income tax fraud.

Goodson Farms is accused of obtaining crop insurance to cover its pepper crops from about March 2001 through about September 2004. The charges state that the farm claimed losses even though it had harvested and sold the claimed crops, fraudulently obtaining more than $1 million in federal crop insurance payments.

D&K Farms is accused of fraudulently obtaining more than $400,000 in federal crop insurance payments from about July 2001 through about June 2003.

Darryl and William Keith Williams are accused of filing false tax returns for the year 2004. Goodson Farms owner Janet Goodson was charged with filing false tax returns in 2005. She is scheduled to plead guilty on Nov. 12.

Both farms and the Williams brothers have agreed to plead guilty, according to plea agreements filed in U.S. District Court.

In the meantime, the federal government is suing Goodson Farms to recover the money.

The Williams brothers both face up to three years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000. They also would be required to pay restitution to the Internal Revenue Service.

D&K Farms faces a $500,000 fine, $402,471 in restitution and $402,471 in criminal forfeiture.

Goodson Farms faces a $500,000 fine, more than $1 million in restitution and more than $1 million in criminal forfeiture.

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