Federal investigators have uncovered the largest crop insurancefraud ring in the country in eastern North Carolina. So far, themassive scheme involves dozens of agents, claims adjusters, brokersand farmers, who have stolen an estimated $100 million, according to the AP.

Forty-one defendants have either pleaded guilty or reached aplea agreement, according to the AP. False insurance claims fortobacco, soybean, wheat and corn losses were filed by farmers usingaliases. In cases where crops were not damaged at all, farmersprofited directly from sales of written-off harvests.

Initial prosecutions led to participants implicating still moreindividuals to investigate. Honest farmers are hurt by fraudbecause it causes premiums to go up.

The government created the federal crop insurance program duringthe Dust Bowl the 1930s to keep farmers from going bankrupt after apoor season. The U.S. Dept. of Agriculture pays select privateinsurers to manage the policies; tax payers pay most of the losses.Payouts for 2012 have topped $15.6 billion and are stillgrowing.

Bruce A. Babcock, an agricultural economist at Iowa StateUniversity, told the AP that fraud likely accounts for a smallpercentage of the total claims for 2012.

Authorities discovered the ring in 2005 after years offraudulent claims after using computer software to mine insuranceclaims data across the country. Investigators found an outlier inRobert Carl Stokes, a Wilson, W. Va., crop insurance agent whoseclients seemed to have consistent bad luck. Stokes recruitedfarmers to take out large policies, claim large losses, and hidethe true value of their crops by selling them to tobacco warehouseoperators in on the scheme, according to the AP. During theprosecution of Stokes and his co-conspirators, dozens of otherfrauds were uncovered.

Stokes was charged with 14 felony counts and pled guilty in2011. He was sentenced to 30 months in prison and agreed to paymore than $16.5 million in restitution, the AP found. Stokes isback in West Virginia and now wears an electronic ankle braceletthat allows authorities to track his movements. He also has threemore years of probation to complete.

Crop insurance fraud cases continue to be heard in the Raleigh,N.C. federal courthouse. Former Rural Community Insurance Servicesadjuster Jimmy Thomas Sasser was sentence to four years in prisonand more than $21 million in restitution on similar charges. Sassertold the AP that crop fraud is “everywhere, all across the country”due to ease of covering up fraudulent claims.

Dozens of other defendants have been sentenced to jail time andordered to pay a total of $42 million in restitution—half of whatprosecutors say taxpayers are owed, according to the AP. ThomasWalker, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of N.C., toldthe AP the investigation is still continuing, and that he will dohis part to pursue perpetrators of crop insurance fraud in the sameaggressive manner as mortgage fraud, health care fraud, drugdealers and other criminals.