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Farmers Paid Back After Check Fraud

Posted: 7:33 PM May 12, 2012
Reporter: Casey Wheeless

Farmers Paid Back After Check Fraud

Satisfied farmers Saturday in Cave City as about 175 of them were given large checks worth thousands of dollars.

" We've been out work for a few weeks," says Mike Luke who drove 100 miles from Tennessee to get his money, "it couldn't have come at a better time."

Back in 2010 the Eastern Livestock check-kiting scheme defrauded cattle farmers from around the state, putting most of them in the hole.

"We've had to refinance and re-budget take out loans to cover it," says Brent Keith, a farmer out of Columbia.

After being defrauded, some say it was like raising cattle just to give away, something most of them cant afford.

Now, two former Eastern Livestock employees pleaded guilty to the scheme.

The Kentucky Attorney General's Office secured 900,000 dollars in the case, going right back into the victim's pockets.

"It is very unexpected," says Keith, "I never thought I'd see a dime of this ."

"Surprising, I never expected to get anything back," says Paul Milligan, also effected by the fraud.

Luke says he will have to spend this money paying off loans he needed after the scheme put him in debt.

"This will just be going to all the extra bills it acquired," he says.

Todd Lewis with the Attorney General's Office says they're trying to help these farmers as much as they can.

"When we first heard about this early in 2010, being the Chief Prosecutor, I sat down with the Attorney General said, this could be a potential crisis, and he said go, right there," says Lewis.

"This is a good start, this will make up for what should've been there since day one," says Luke.

Many farmers say this experience will make them more cautious to protect themselves in the future.