Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. Elsie McIntosh of Dunkerton, 13, wears virtual reality goggles to watch a NASA rocket launch simulation at the Iowa State University Extension and Outreach exhibit at the 2021 Black Hawk County 4-H and FFA Fair in Waterloo. Get the latest in local public safety news with this weekly email. For further information about the Packers and Stockyards Act, contact Stuart Frank, Director, Packers and Stockyards Division, Fair Trade Practices Program, at (515) 323-2586, or by email at Stuart.Frank@usda.gov. AP Agriculture Jun. Billie Joe Wickham, age 51, of Waucoma, Iowa, pled guilty on July 15, 2022, to one count of Conspiracy to Defraud the United States. Be Proactive. In a consent order signed this month, the U.S. Department of Agriculture also ordered Lynch Livestock to pay a civil penalty of $445,626, which will be reduced for restitution paid to affected livestock sellers. Ex-pork buyer dies in Iowa crash following fraud indictment The agency ordered Lynch Livestock to pay $445,626 in penalties and restitution, and to stop recording false weights, altering classifications of hogs delivered Lynch Ansli Cox of Cedar Falls tries to match live specimens of prairie plants and flowers with names on a chart at the University of Northern Iowa's Tallgrass Prairie Outreach Center exhibit during the STEM Fair at the 2021 Black Hawk County 4-H and FFA Fair in Waterloo. The USDA had ordered I started with The Courier in 1999 and cover criminal justice and public safety. Get the latest Agricultural Marketing Service news at www.ams.usda.gov/news or follow us on Twitter @USDA_AMS. Lynch Livestock, based in Waucoma, Iowa, has been ordered to stop recording false weights for hogs delivered to its buying stations, to stop altering classifications of hogs delivered, and to stop creating false scale tickets. WAUCOMA Prosecutors have charged an Iowa livestock company in an ongoing investigation into allegations its employees shorted hog producers. IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) An influential hog dealer sanctioned twice for defrauding pork producers out of hundreds of thousands of dollars says it has fired employees responsible for its latest violations and paid restitution to affected sellers. A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States. On February 10, 2023, Lynch Livestock was sentenced to five years of probation, fined $196,000, and ordered to pay over $3 million in restitution to livestock producers and farmers. Steven Demaray, 70, the former regional buying manager for Lynch Livestock, was driving a truck that crashed Monday morning into a concrete overpass support pier on Highway 63 near New Hampton, where he lived, according to the Iowa State Patrol. The U.S. Attorneys Office for the Northern District of Iowa on Thursday charged Waucoma-based Lynch Family Companies Inc., formerly Lynch Livestock, with one count of failing to comply with an order of the secretary of agriculture. Wickham, who is expected to make his initial court appearance next week, moved to a different position. The USDA documents identified Iowa Select Farms, the states largest pork producer, as one of the victims. Those practices violate federal law and result in underpayments to producers. USDA again sanctions powerful hog buyer for cheating sellers The charge, which was filed Thursday, alleges the company violated a 2017 consent agreement with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to settle allegations employees falsified scale tickets and other purchasing documents. Nov. 16, 2021 10:47 am, Updated: Nov. 16, 2021 6:16 pm. Connect with the definitive source for global and local news. You have permission to edit this article. Gary Lynch has given at least $115,000 to Reynolds campaigns since 2016 and tens of thousands more to the Republican Party of Iowa, state legislative leaders and members of Congress, disclosure records show. However, from the early 2000s through at least March 2017, the company second-ranking official had other managers and employees falsely reduce and downgrade the numbers to pay less than they should have had to for the livestock. He also had a Land Disturbance permit from DNR. Days after being charged with mail fraud, a former manager for Lynch Livestock, a pork dealer based in Iowa, died in a car crash Monday.