{"id":585,"date":"2014-02-08T06:00:02","date_gmt":"2014-02-08T14:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=585"},"modified":"2014-02-09T21:05:54","modified_gmt":"2014-02-10T05:05:54","slug":"585","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=585","title":{"rendered":"N.M. Farmer Sentenced to 14 Years for Stealing Farm Subsidy Money"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON D.C.<\/strong> — A New Mexico farmer was sentenced to 14 years in prison for stealing more than $225,000 from the federal government’s farm subsidies program that is operated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, according to prosecutors.<\/p>\n

In addition, Bill Melot<\/strong>, a farmer from Hobbs, N.M., was ordered to pay more than $18 million to the Internal Revenue Service.<\/p>\n

Melot was previously convicted of tax evasion, federal officials said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Melot was been\u00a0convicted of failure to file tax returns, making false statements to the USDA and impeding the IRS following a four-day jury trial in Albuquerque, N.M.<\/span><\/p>\n

According to evidence presented at trial and at sentencing, Melot has not filed a personal income tax return since 1986, and owes the IRS more than $25 million in federal taxes and more than $7 million in taxes to the state of Texas. <\/span><\/p>\n

In addition, Melot furnished the Agricultural Department with false information to improperly collected more than $225,000 in federal farm subsidies, the evidence indicated.<\/span><\/p>\n

Officials said \u00a0Melot took numerous steps to conceal his ownership of 250 acres in Lea County, N.M., including notarizing forged deeds and titling the property in the name of nominees.<\/span><\/p>\n

Also Melot maintained a bank account with Nordfinanz Zurich, a Swiss financial institution, which he set up in Nassau, Bahamas, in 1992, and failed to report the account to the U.S. Treasury Department as required by law.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON D.C. — A New Mexico farmer was sentenced to 14 years in prison for stealing more than $225,000 from the federal government’s farm subsidies program that is operated by the U.S….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":588,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[104,105,103],"class_list":["post-585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-courts","tag-bill-melot","tag-internal-revenue-service","tag-u-s-department-of-agriculture"],"yoast_head":"\nN.M. 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