FARGO, N.D. (AP) - Two North Dakota brothers have been sentenced to prison time and ordered to pay back more than $900,000 for intentionally destroying potatoes to collect federal farm insurance payments.
In separate sentencing hearings Monday that stretched for more than four hours, U.S. District Judge Ralph Erickson sentenced Aaron Johnson to four years in prison and Derek Johnson to 1½ years in prison. Both brothers asked to serve their sentences in Duluth, Minnesota.
Erickson ordered the Johnsons, who farmed near Cooperstown, to pay back the government $932,776. The judge determined the government could only prove losses for the 2006 growing season.
Erickson said the brothers need to serve prison time in order to reflect the seriousness of the crime and to deter others from similar conduct.