Iowa Farmer Pleads Guilty to Multi-Year Bankruptcy Fraud Scheme

An Iowa farmer who stole over $250,000 from his business partner and filed dozens of false documents over multiple years in bankruptcy court pled guilty today in federal court in Cedar Rapids. Kurt Patrick Krauskopf, age 49, from Decorah, Iowa, was convicted of one count of bankruptcy fraud.

In a plea agreement, Krauskopf admitted that he is a Winneshiek County farmer. Krauskopf had a business partnership with another individual, who grew corn and soybeans on various farms in Northeast Iowa. Between 2021 and 2023, Krauskopf sold over $250,000 of the partnerships' crops to third parties under the false and fraudulent pretense that Krauskopf personally owned the corn and soybeans. Krauskopf then used the sales proceeds from the stolen corn and soybeans for his own sole and exclusive benefit and without his business partner's knowledge.

In April 2021, Krauskopf filed a voluntary petition for Chapter 12 bankruptcy in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Iowa. Chapter 12 is a special chapter of the Bankruptcy Code that is designed to help certain farmers who are struggling financially to propose and carry out a plan to repay their debts. While the case is pending, the farmer-debtor is required to file sworn monthly operating reports that truthfully disclose the farmer's monthly income and expenses. As part of his plea agreement, Krauskopf admitted that, between 2021 and 2023, he filed dozens of false monthly operating reports in which he failed to disclose income from the sale of his partner's grain.

Sentencing before United States District Court Chief Judge C.J. Williams will be set after a presentence report is prepared. Krauskopf remains free on bond pending sentencing. Krauskopf faces a possible maximum sentence of five years' imprisonment, a $250,000 fine, and three years of supervised release following any imprisonment.

Krauskopf is the third person convicted this year in the Northern District of Iowa for bankruptcy related offenses. In February, a jury convicted the former president of a defunct Eastern Iowa telecommunications infrastructure business, Dennis Clifford Bruce, age 51, from Marion, Iowa, of one count of conspiracy, two counts of bankruptcy concealment, one count of false bankruptcy declaration, two counts of false statement under oath, and one count of engaging in a monetary transaction in property derived from specified unlawful activity. In April, Donita Eckrich, age 64, from Coralville, Iowa, pled guilty to one count of bankruptcy fraud after she admitted she had used the bankruptcy court to defraud a nursing home out of more than $70,000.

The Krauskopf case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Timothy L. Vavricek and was investigated by the Winneshiek County Sheriff's Office.

Court file information at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl.

The case file number is 26-CR-2014.

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