In May of 2007, Lonnie Utah Littles, 62, took out a loan of $105,000 on the cattle farm he owned with his wife, Christian County Assessor Sandra Bryant-Littles. He listed the Poco Cala Ranch, including the cattle that lived there, as collateral for the loan, agreeing that he was prohibited from selling or transferring the collateral without consent from the bank.
That agreement was put out to pasture pretty quickly, as the Clever resident not-so-cleverly sold or otherwise disposed of at least 63 head of cattle between September 2008 and February 2009 without notifying the bank. At that point, the cattle farm was faced with foreclosure, and the bank was threatening to take the farm (cows and all) to collect on the $104,956.50 owed.
Although the situation seemed utterly overwhelming, Littles wasn't going to be cowed. He informed his employee, 57-year-old Jesse Rice, that the bank was going to conduct an inspection of the cattle, and suggested that they might report some of the cattle stolen in order to collect an insurance settlement. Rice was herded into the scheme on the assumption that the money that the Littles' owed him would be paid out of the settlement.
In February of 2009, prior to the inspection, the Littles were conveniently out of town in Licking. Rice took this opportunity to report more than 50 head of cattle stolen. He then led authorities around the property, and signed false written statements describing the alleged theft. Littles horned in by telephone and encouraged Rice to milk the situation for all it was worth by engaging with the media, so Rice provided two local news stations with on-camera interviews.
Just 10 days after those interviews, though, Rice admitted to investigators of the Missouri Livestock and Farm Protection Task Force that the cattle were not on the ranch at the time the theft was reported, and that the theft report was false. Rice was arrested and pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud, and one count of bank fraud.
Littles faces those same charges, but a federal grand jury beefed up his case with a superseding indictment this October. The indictment added two additional counts of wire fraud to the original indictment that included making a false insurance claim and bank fraud. Considering the felony counts in his sentence, he'll be paying for his crime until the cows come home.
Want to continue reading?
Become a Free PropertyCasualty360 Digital Reader
Your access to unlimited PropertyCasualty360 content isn’t changing.
Once you are an ALM digital member, you’ll receive:
- Breaking insurance news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
- Weekly Insurance Speak podcast featuring exclusive interviews with industry leaders
- Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
- Critical converage of the employee benefits and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, BenefitsPRO and ThinkAdvisor
Already have an account? Sign In Now
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
