Steve McBee’s Charge: Guilty Plea, Sentence, and Civil Suit

Steve McBee’s charges came down to one federal count: crop insurance fraud. The 53-year-old Gallatin, Missouri farmer and star of The McBee Dynasty: Real American Cowboys pleaded guilty in November 2024 to defrauding the federal crop insurance program of more than $4 million between 2018 and 2020, was sentenced in October 2025 to 24 months in federal prison plus $4,022,124 in restitution, and is now serving that sentence at the Federal Prison Camp in Yankton, South Dakota.

The Federal Charge

McBee was charged by information, not indictment, with a single count of crop insurance fraud in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri (case number 4:24-cr-00241).¹ He waived his right to a grand jury and pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Stephen R. Bough on November 5, 2024. The single count was built on the 2018 conduct, but McBee also admitted to related fraud in 2019 and 2020 as part of the plea, and the court considered all three years at sentencing.²

The investigation was handled by the USDA Office of Inspector General. McBee learned he was under investigation in June 2023, and his attorneys met with prosecutors in December 2023.³

How the Fraud Worked

The scheme ran across three crop years and used three different methods.

In 2018, McBee’s operation actually sold more than 1.2 million bushels of corn and nearly 416,000 bushels of soybeans. On paperwork submitted to Rain and Hail, an insurer reinsured by the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation, he reported only 340,476 bushels of corn and 190,171 bushels of soybeans. That is roughly a quarter of his real corn output and under half of his soybean harvest, or about 830 semi-truck trailers of grain hidden from his insurer. The underreporting produced $2,605,943 in improper insurance benefits and another $552,980 in federal premium subsidies he was not entitled to.⁴⁵

In 2019, he shifted to double-cropping fraud. His policy covered only the first crop planted on a given field in a crop year. McBee told Rain and Hail that soybeans were the first crop on certain fields when wheat had already been harvested from them, letting him collect payouts on ground his policy did not cover.⁴

In 2020, with a different insurer, NAU Country Insurance, McBee reported false planting dates. His operation had put corn in the ground after the final permissible planting date for insurance eligibility, and he moved the dates earlier on the paperwork to make the crop appear covered.⁴

Total loss to the USDA across the three years exceeded $4 million.

The Plea Agreement

Under the plea deal, prosecutors agreed not to bring additional charges against McBee, his farm entities, or any family member arising out of the 2018–2020 crop insurance fraud. In return, McBee agreed to pay roughly $3.2 million to the federal government, to forfeit assets if needed to satisfy the debt, and to submit to a polygraph regarding the identification and recovery of assets. The government agreed to recommend a three-level reduction for acceptance of responsibility, with more possible for continued cooperation. The agreement flagged that McBee could lose eligibility to participate in federal farm programs. A breach clause let the government revive the original charges, and pursue any other violations shown by the evidence, if McBee did not hold up his end.²

The Sentence

Sentencing was reset several times before finally taking place on October 16, 2025.⁶

The two sides came in far apart. Prosecutors asked for 41 months in prison, three years of supervised release, $4 million in restitution, and a $3.2 million money judgment for McBee’s personal gain, arguing the total loss fell between $3.5 million and $9.5 million.⁵ Defense counsel asked for probation with no prison time, citing McBee’s clean record apart from a 2019 alcohol-related $150 traffic infraction, his lack of any agricultural background before he started farming, the 2018 drought’s effect on record-keeping, and his sons’ efforts to sell land and exit leases to pay down family debt.⁷

Judge Bough sentenced McBee to 24 months in prison followed by two years of supervised release, and ordered restitution of $4,022,124 to the USDA’s Risk Management Agency.⁸⁹ The government also moved to forfeit three luxury watches — a Tag Heuer Formula 1, a Tag Heuer Grand Carrera, and a Rolex Daytona — valued together at somewhere between $23,700 and more than $1 million.¹⁰

McBee was ordered to self-surrender by 2:00 p.m. on December 1, 2025, to the Federal Prison Camp in Yankton, South Dakota, a minimum-security facility. He reported on schedule and is serving his sentence there.⁶¹¹

The Civil Suit Over Asset Transfers

The criminal case did not end McBee’s exposure. The Justice Department filed a separate civil action in the Western District of Missouri accusing him of moving business assets to his sons Cole and Jesse to duck the $4 million restitution.

On January 7, 2024, about a month after his lawyers first met with prosecutors and roughly ten months before he pleaded guilty, McBee transferred his ownership interests in three companies into trusts held by his sons: a 39% stake in McBee Properties L.C., a 99% stake in Rock Bluff Development LLC, and a 99% stake in S&K Enterprises LLC. The government alleges the transfers were made without equivalent value and with “actual intent to hinder, delay and defraud creditors” at a time when McBee knew he faced debts he could not pay.³

The complaint brings six fraudulent-conveyance claims under federal and Missouri state law. It seeks money judgments against Cole and Jesse for the value of the transferred interests and an injunction barring sale, mortgaging, or other disposal of the business assets. As of March 2026, four months into his prison term, McBee had “paid his victim nothing” toward the $4 million restitution, according to government filings.³

McBee’s attorneys moved to dismiss in February 2026, arguing the transfers were consistent with a long-running estate plan. They noted the sons’ trusts were created in December 2012, more than a decade before the 2024 transfers, and said prosecutors had not shown McBee was insolvent at the time, believed he could not pay his debts, or tried to conceal assets. “The absence of consideration is inherent in a gift; it does not, standing alone, establish fraud,” the defense filing argued. The government responded that “fraudulent conveyance law looks at substance, not form,” and that what mattered was the timing of the January 2024 transfers, not the age of the trusts.³

On March 17, 2026, the court denied the motion to dismiss, finding it could “reasonably infer that McBee believed he would incur debts beyond his ability to pay” and that the transfers were meant to “shield his assets from collection.”¹² A mediator was appointed in May 2026, and a jury trial is set for May 3, 2027, with a pretrial conference on April 6, 2027.¹³

A Separate $1.3 Million Judgment

McBee also owes money outside the federal case. Rabo Agrifinance LLC obtained a $1.3 million default judgment against McBee and McBee Family Farms in the Iowa District Court for Black Hawk County on June 25, 2025, and filed it in the Circuit Court of Daviess County, Missouri, on August 13, 2025.¹⁴ That is a private lender’s civil judgment, separate from the crop insurance charges and the government’s asset case.

Where Things Stand

McBee grew his operation from nothing starting in 1998, reaching roughly 40,000 acres of owned and leased land across Missouri, Iowa, and Arkansas by 2020, run alongside his four sons Steve Jr., Brayden, Cole, and Jesse.⁵ The family’s farm became The McBee Dynasty: Real American Cowboys, which premiered March 11, 2024, on USA Network before moving to Bravo.¹⁵ Steve Sr. was the central figure in Season 1 but does not appear in Seasons 2 or 3; his sons, led by Steven McBee Jr., have been running the operation during his incarceration.¹⁶

As of June 2026, the family described itself as being in a “100-day countdown” to his release, pointing to a return home around September 2026.¹⁷ The restitution debt, the forfeiture proceedings, and the civil suit against him and his sons will all outlast the prison term.

1
PACER Monitor. USA v. McBee
2
Western Ag Network. Ag TV Star Steve McBee to Be Sentenced on Crop Insurance Fraud
3
DTN Progressive Farmer. McBee Legal Drama Deepens; Feds Seek Assets
4
U.S. Department of Justice. Gallatin Farmer Pleads Guilty to Multi-Million Dollar Crop Insurance Fraud
5
DTN Progressive Farmer. Prosecutors Seek 41 Months in Prison for Ag TV Star
6
People. Steven McBee Sr. Sentenced to 24 Months in Insurance Fraud Case
7
Watt’s Livestock Journal. Prosecutors Seek 41 Months in Prison for McBee
8
DTN Progressive Farmer. McBee Sentenced to Prison for Crop Insurance Fraud
9
USA Today. Steve McBee Sentenced in Fraud Case
10
DTN Progressive Farmer. Crop Insurance Fraud Sentencing for Ag TV Star
11
Yankton Press & Dakotan. McBee Surrenders to FPC Yankton
12
DTN Progressive Farmer. Court Denies McBee Dynasty Star’s Motion to Dismiss
13
DTN Progressive Farmer. Imprisoned McBee Dynasty Farmer and Sons Face Trial
14
DTN Progressive Farmer. McBee Sells Grain Storage and Wheat Crop
15
Kansas City Star. McBee Dynasty Star Pleads Guilty to Fraud
16
Bravo TV. Steven McBee Sr. Legal Case Explained
17
Decider. Steven McBee Sentencing and Prison Time Explained