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Indian-American convicted for crop insurance fraud
Sihota’s sentencing is scheduled for March 3, 2025.
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An Indian- American farmer from Fresno County has pleaded guilty in a scheme to defraud crop insurance, resulting in more than $650,000 in improper payments.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Jatinderjeet “Jyoti” Sihota, 37, of Selma, pleaded guilty of conspiring to commit crop insurance fraud, alongside her co-defendant Ralph Hackett, 69, of Clovis, who also entered a guilty plea.
Sihota’s family farming operation, producing table grapes and other crops in Fresno and Tulare counties, sold much of its harvest through a fruit packing company managed by Hackett. The farming business and the packing company had entered agreements in which the packing company advanced certain costs for selling crops, expecting reimbursement from the farming operation.
From 2012 to 2016, Sihota and Hackett allegedly manipulated crop reports to understate sales, falsely indicating significant crop losses to obtain insurance payments, court records stated.
Hackett, who also pleaded guilty, admitted to instructing lower-level employees to assist in the fraudulent scheme and hiding his actions from other principals in the company. In addition to his guilty plea, Hackett agreed to pay $650,000 in criminal restitution and $605,000 in a separate civil settlement.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Office of Inspector General and the Risk Management Agency’s Special Investigations Staff led the investigation. “The USDA OIG is committed to combatting crop insurance fraud through criminal investigations and civil enforcement. Fraudulent activity within the crop insurance program undermines its intent and misdirects taxpayer dollars from where they were intended,” said Special Agent-in-Charge Shawn Dionida, adding that fraudulent activity diverts taxpayer dollars from intended purposes.
Sihota’s sentencing is scheduled for March 3, 2025, and Hackett’s for Jan. 27, 2025. Each faces a maximum statutory penalty of 20 years in federal prison and a fine of up to $250,000, though the actual sentences will be determined according to Federal Sentencing Guidelines.
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