Edgar Theodore Smith Jr. has been charged in a crop fraud case after having lied in 2007 about how much tobacco was produced on his land. Smith, of Lillington, N.C., is both a farmer and president of Smith Farm Services, a company that sells farm supplies and whole grain.
Smith hid the sale of 62,000 pounds of tobacco by collecting profits in the form of checks made out to fictional people, depositing them in a business account, and then filed a claim for loss of the tobacco and received $66,000 from his insurance company.
Accused of conspiring to make false statements, Smith garnered charges of making material false statements and committing mail fraud and wire fraud. Additionally, 25 others in the area have been linked with the scam, including insurance brokers, a convenience store operator, and crop brokers.
At least one other person charged is from the Cape Fear area, where Lillington is located, so it seems as though Smith just might have been living in fear all along.
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