Farm manager sentenced to prison in fraud investigation

During a June 24 hearing in the U.S. District Court for Northern Iowa, Judge C.J. Williams sentenced Robert Harry Bickerstaff, 52, of Rock Rapids, to six months in prison for one count of wire fraud.

Bickerstaff is the fifth Lynch Livestock manager to plead guilty to charges in the scheme.

Bickerstaff was a regional manager for Lynch in Waucoma and also a pork producer. He has a degree in agribusiness and won the 2022 Hog Wild Award from the Iowa Pork Producers Association for his role in promoting pork in Lyon County.

At Lynch, Bickerstaff supervised cattle stations in Iowa, Minnesota and South Dakota and occasionally personally graded and weighed hogs at those stations.

The company has been under investigation by regulators in the past for manipulating livestock weights and grading, and was issued a consent decree by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 2017.

Prosecutors say that between 2018 and 2021, Bickerstaff directed employees at collection points to under-grade hogs delivered by producers and sellers, manipulate electronic scales with crowbars, and create false “sorting sheets” and weight receipts.

This meant Lynch Livestock was paying sellers less than they were owed.

When Bickerstaff learned of the potential investigation in 2021, he instructed staff to destroy reports with his name on them. He also sent an email to the company’s owner saying he had met with a company lawyer.

“I told him about some things that had been done in several of my positions that were carryover practices from (another manager’s) era. Some of those things were done to keep margins at the levels the company expected. … I’m not proud that I didn’t make changes to those practices sooner than I did, but I can’t undo my past mistakes,” the email said, according to court records. He resigned a few days later.

In February 2023, the company, now known as Lynch Family Companies, was sentenced to five years of probation, fined $196,000 and ordered to pay $3 million in restitution for failing to comply with an order from the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture issued as part of the settlement.

Also accused in the investigation:

• Billie Joe Wickham of Waucoma pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States and was sentenced to six months in prison and fined $3,000.
• Charlie Lynch of Fort Atkinson pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States and was sentenced to five years probation and fined $3,000.
• Leland “Pete” Blue of Fredericksburg pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States and was sentenced to five years probation and fined $1,000.
• Tyler Thoms of Fayette pleaded guilty to one count of causing a cattle dealer to keep false records and was sentenced to one year of probation.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy Vavricek and the investigation was conducted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Office of Inspector General, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.