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ADM Accused in Grain Ponzi Scheme Trial
USAgNet - 08/26/2016

A Missouri grain dealer who stole tens of millions of dollars from farmers may turn out to be their best ally as they try to recoup losses from corn giant Archer-Daniels-Midland Co. According to Bloomberg News, ADM began trial Tuesday in St. Louis with farmers claiming the woman couldn't have ripped them off without help from the world's biggest corn processor. From behind bars, where she is serving a nine-years sentence, the dealer's testimony is set to bolster the farmers' effort to get back more than just the mere fraction of their losses they've recovered from her.

An unfavorable verdict for ADM could taint a mainstay of U.S. agriculture, an industry built largely on relationships farmers have forged over generations with companies that buy their crops and sell them insurance, hedging services, fertilizer and tractors. Farmers across the American corn belt sell their harvests to ADM, or store supplies in its massive bins, before the commodities make their way through a network of grain elevators, barges and ports to markets around the world.

Many grain transactions go through independent dealers, acting as middlemen. Enter Cathy Gieseker, who the farmers say was ADM's top grain supplier at its facility in Mexico, Missouri.

Beginning in 2002, Gieseker stole $27.4 million from 179 farmers in Missouri's biggest grain fraud. She reneged on paying for corn and soybeans that she sold, mainly to ADM. She paid some farmers with money from subsequent sales of other customers' grain, making the decade-long fraud a Ponzi scheme, according to prosecutors.

She was ordered to pay $27 million in restitution, according to a plea agreement. Federal authorities have turned over about $1.4 million to the farmers from her seized assets and her payments.

Now 52, Gieseker is serving her time in a federal prison in Kentucky. Her recorded testimony will be played before the jury Wednesday.

ADM has been investigated by multiple agencies, including the U.S. Justice Department and the Missouri attorney general's office and no wrongdoing has been found, Cohen said.


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