A former Bloomington man was sentenced Thursday, Jan. 5, by U.S. District Judge James Peterson to three years probation and ordered to pay $85,424.51 in restitution for fraudulent conversion and sale of crops owned by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Farm Service Agency (USDA FSA).
Kelly Wachter, 34, pleaded guilty to the above charges on Oct. 3, 2016, according to John Vaudreuil, U.S. attorney for the Western District of Wisconsin.
Wachter admitted, during his plea, that in May 2014, he obtained a $210,000 loan from the USDA FSA for the purpose of planting corn and soybean crops on farmland he rented in Bloomington. The crops were considered collateral for the loan, and the proceeds from the sale of the crops were to be used first to pay the FSA loan.