McBee Lawsuit: Civil Fraud Transfer Case, Guilty Plea, and Farm Finances

The McBee lawsuit most people are asking about now is the civil fraudulent-transfer case the U.S. Department of Justice filed in December 2025 against Steve McBee Sr. and two of his sons, Cole and Jesse. It followed McBee’s guilty plea to federal crop insurance fraud and his 24-month prison sentence, and it accuses him of moving millions of dollars in business interests into his sons’ trusts to keep them out of reach of the government’s $4 million restitution order. The criminal case is closed. The civil case is active, and in March 2026 a federal judge refused to throw it out.

The Civil Fraudulent Transfer Lawsuit

The Justice Department filed the civil suit in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri. It targets transfers Steve McBee Sr. executed on January 7, 2024, splitting ownership stakes in three family businesses evenly between Cole and Jesse: a 39% interest in McBee Properties L.C., a 99% interest in Rock Bluff Development LLC, and a 99% interest in S&K Enterprises LLC.¹ The complaint brings six claims for fraudulent conveyance under federal and Missouri state law.

The government’s theory turns on timing. McBee was notified of the federal investigation in June 2023. His attorney met with prosecutors in December 2023 to talk through his criminal exposure. Roughly a month later, on January 7, 2024, he made the transfers. Prosecutors say he received nothing of value in return, that he knew he was facing debts far beyond what he could pay, and that in the four months after sentencing he had paid nothing toward the $4 million restitution.¹

The government is asking the court to void the transfers, enter money judgments against Cole and Jesse McBee for the value of the interests they received, and issue an injunction blocking any sale or disposal of the underlying business assets.²

One piece of context matters for the sons’ exposure. As part of Steve McBee Sr.’s criminal plea agreement, the government agreed not to charge any of his family members with crop insurance fraud.³ The civil suit is a separate track, and it names Cole and Jesse as defendants because they hold the interests the government wants clawed back.

Motion to Dismiss and the Court’s Ruling

In February 2026, lawyers for Steve, Cole, and Jesse McBee moved to dismiss. Their main argument was that the trusts receiving the assets had been set up in December 2012, more than a decade before the transfers, as part of the family’s estate planning. Defense counsel argued the lack of consideration “is inherent in a gift; it does not, standing alone, establish fraud,” and said the government had not established that McBee was insolvent at the time or that he intended to hide anything.⁴

The court denied the motion on March 17, 2026. The judge wrote that “a plausible inference from these facts…is that McBee made these transfers anticipating a criminal conviction that would result in a significant restitution judgment and that he made these transfers to shield his assets from collection.” Because courts must treat a plaintiff’s factual allegations as true at the pleading stage, that was enough to keep the case alive.² The case has not gone to trial.

The Underlying Criminal Case

The civil suit only exists because of the criminal one. Between 2018 and 2020, McBee submitted false documents to crop insurance companies backed by the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation, the USDA program that subsidizes premiums and reimburses insurers for covered losses. The fraud shifted year to year.

In 2018, McBee massively underreported his harvest to his insurer, Rain and Hail. His operation actually sold more than 1.2 million bushels of corn and nearly 416,000 bushels of soybeans; he reported only about 340,000 bushels of corn and 190,000 bushels of soybeans, collecting insurance benefits he was not owed. In 2019, he told the same insurer that soybeans were the “first crop” planted on fields where wheat had already been harvested, which mattered because policies covered only the first crop planted in a crop year. In 2020, he planted corn after the insurance eligibility deadline and gave false planting dates to a different insurer, NAU Country Insurance, to qualify anyway.⁵

The government calculated total losses at more than $4 million. McBee collected over $2.6 million in crop insurance benefits and more than $500,000 in premium subsidies he was not entitled to receive.⁶

On November 5, 2024, McBee waived indictment, was charged by federal information with one count of crop insurance fraud, and pleaded guilty the same day before U.S. District Judge Stephen R. Bough. The charge carried a maximum of 30 years.⁵

Sentencing slid from September to October 16, 2025. Weeks before it, on August 29, 2025, prosecutors filed a forfeiture motion for three luxury watches, a Tag Heuer Formula 1, a Tag Heuer Grand Carrera, and a Rolex Daytona, as “substitute assets” that could partially satisfy the money judgment. The watches were ordered surrendered. Judge Bough then sentenced McBee to 24 months in prison followed by two years of supervised release, and ordered him to pay $4,022,124 in restitution to the USDA’s Risk Management Agency on top of a previously agreed $3.2 million money judgment.⁷⁸

Where McBee Is Now

McBee self-surrendered to Federal Prison Camp Yankton, a minimum-security facility in South Dakota, on December 1, 2025. On the 24-month sentence, his full term ends around December 2027. Before surrendering he told reporters he hoped to shorten that by applying for a pardon from President Donald Trump or by seeking release under the First Step Act, describing a best-case return home in nine or ten months.⁹ As of mid-2026 he remains at Yankton.¹⁰

Financial Pressure on the Farm

Collectability is part of what makes the civil suit consequential, and the farm’s other creditors have been active. Steven McBee Jr. said on the second season of The McBee Dynasty that the family business carries roughly $70 million in debt and that banks began calling in loans after the FBI investigation became public.¹¹

One documented default illustrates the pattern. McBee Family Farms and Steve McBee defaulted on a $1.3 million loan from Rabo Agrifinance LLC. An Iowa District Court in Black Hawk County entered a default judgment on June 25, 2025, covering roughly $1.17 million in principal and about $134,000 in accrued interest, with interest continuing at $683 per day. The judgment was later filed in the Circuit Court of Daviess County, Missouri, on August 13, 2025.¹²¹³ Steven McBee Jr. told the New York Post in June 2025 that the legal challenges had brought the family closer together, while acknowledging the farm itself could be lost.¹⁴

1
Western Livestock Journal. McBee Legal Drama Deepens as Feds Seek to Claw Back Assets
2
DTN Progressive Farmer. Court Denies McBee Dynasty Stars’ Motion to Dismiss
3
Western Livestock Journal. US: McBee Hid Family Assets From Feds
4
DTN Progressive Farmer. McBee Fights Lawsuit Alleging He Hid Assets From Feds
5
U.S. Department of Justice. Gallatin Farmer Pleads Guilty to Multi-Million Dollar Crop Insurance Fraud
6
KCTV5. Reality TV Star Farmer Pleads Guilty to Multi-Million Dollar Crop Insurance Fraud
7
People. Steven McBee Sr. Sentenced to 24 Months in Insurance Fraud Case
8
DTN Progressive Farmer. McBee Sent to Prison for Crop Insurance Fraud
9
People. Steve McBee Sr. Enters Prison, Begins 24-Month Sentence
10
Bravo TV. Kacie Adkison Shares Update on Steven McBee Sr. Amid Prison Sentence
11
Bravo TV. Where Is The McBee Dynasty Filmed
12
DTN Progressive Farmer. Crop Insurance Fraud Sentencing and Ag Reality TV Star
13
Western Livestock Journal. Ag Reality TV Farm Defaults on $1.3M Loan Ahead of Sentencing
14
Yahoo Entertainment. Inside Steven McBee and the McBee Farm